Time to concentrate language courses on the silver market? People who speak more than one appear to have brains at least six years younger than those who are monolingual, suggests a study being presented at the Federation of European Neuroscience Societies conference in Barcelona. And the more foreign languages you acquire, so the brain’s agility survives longer: speaking three adds seven years and learning four could stretch that to thirteen years. Mind you scientists in Spain, Chile, Argentina and Dublin compared people living in the Basque region – characterised by high levels of multilingualism – who spoke Spanish, Basque, French and/or English. And Basques, of course, do not have the luxury of speaking their own language very loudly, in the hope that foreign taxi drivers will understand where they want to go.
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