Bill Belew has raised 2 bi-cultural kids, now 34 and 30. And he and his wife are now parenting a 3rd, Mia, who is 8.

A few weeks ago, Time magazine put out an article – The Power of the Bilingual Brain.

There are a LOT of things a bilingual brain can do better than a mono-lingual brain.

How many can you name?

Before reading on write down the advantages you can think of.

Multilingual Mind

Ready … now read.

Multilingual people:

1. better at reasoning – (Ed. You can think noun first then verb and object or start with object and work the other way around).

2. better at multitasking – (Ed. You can talk out of both sides of your mouth in two different languages).

3. better at grasping conflicting ideas – (Ed. Eastern languages and western languages as well as ideas definitely conflict).

4. better at reconciling conflicting ideas – (Ed. Kind of like when an American marries a Chinese. You have to get along or else).

5. work faster – (Ed. zoom zoom)

6. expend less energy – (Ed. Hybrid brains. Brains on solar power. Brains on nuclear power …) .

7. keep their minds working longer – (Ed. After telling mommy in one language, you gotta tell daddy in the other).

8. delay the onset of dementia – (Ed. I was going to write more but I can’t remember what I was writing about now.)

9. have more flexible brains – (Ed. they can touch their toes)

10.  have more resourceful brains – (Ed. 6,000 English words + 20,000 Chinese hanzi + 2,000 Japanese kanji + the Slavic languages + Greek + Latin + Hebrew = )

Okay … multilingual brains have a brain up on the single-minded and single tongued.

Got it.

Better go study.

Talk to Bill and others about their experiences raising bi-cultural Japanese-American kids.

Author Bill Belew is also featured in Prachesta Magazine. Here is the Interview.