Swedish researchers have found that studying languages actually makes your brain grow!
They measured the brains of students at the Swedish Armed Forces Interpreter Academy, where they follow an incredibly intensive training; just think they go from zero knowledge to fluency in any given language in 13 months!
The results were astonishing: the parts of the brain involved in acquiring new knowledge and in spatial navigation actually grew in size during the course. Not only, the growth was proportional to the results the students achieved and how hard they worked to get there.
It’s official then: studying languages makes you smarter! (and you don’t necessarily have to become a Swedish Army interpreter)
read on ScienceDaily (Oct. 8, 2012)