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Politics : Sharks in the Septic Tank -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Lane3 who wrote (32212)	10/12/2001 6:26:45 PM
From: Poet	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 82486

Hi Karen, I know I'm jumping in late in this language conversation, but I thought I'd add some anecdotal stuff (if that nasty X doesn't bite my head off): I took Spanish in school from third grade through high school, then majored in it, along with psych, in college, achieving a high degree of fluency. I've used it in countless ways, only some of which were professional. For me, some of the greatest benefit I've had in being bilingual is a good understanding of the different worldview of those for whom Spanish is their mother tongue. The different sense of humor, the differences in usage between various Spanish-speaking countries, and most important (to me) the ability to read an entirely different canon of literature has made my learning Spanish one of the best decisions I ever made.

To: Lane3 who wrote (32212)	10/12/2001 6:48:11 PM
From: epicure	Respond to of 82486

You are right. Studies in this country are mostly on English as second language students- but there have been a few studies on English primary speakers and their facility with language acquisition. Development of extra languages increases connectivity in the brain, it help children learn about language, and makes them understand it better, structurally, in the long run, because they have more data points, and they can compare and contrast different forms in different languages. Music- which is basically another language- has also been shown to increase academic performance. Interestingly Music seems to benefit children's math skills.