At last, a proper excuse for monoglots to learn another language: it helps keep your brain young | Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett
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- New research cited in the column found that learning another language can slow brain ageing by up to 13 years, with multilingualism thought to promote brain connectivity and slow age-related decline.
- Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett, a Guardian columnist who speaks English, Welsh, French and Italian, recounts arguing in rusty French with a waiter over a €10 charge for stale tortilla chips and reaching for the subjunctive to demand better customer service.
- Cosslett's father, who speaks English, Welsh, some French and some Russian, was considering learning Italian after a trip where he asked Cosslett to teach him phrases to practice with locals.
- The column opens with a PG Wodehouse joke about the 'furtive shame' on an Englishman's face when he is about to speak French, framing the vulnerability she says is required for language acquisition.
- Cosslett notes that English speakers are 'a monoglot minority on a largely bilingual planet' and argues it's never too late to start learning, despite the neuroscientists' finding that earlier is better.
- She shares her favourite French expression, "C'est le petit Jésus en culotte de velours!" (the baby Jesus in velvet underpants), and appeals to readers to confirm whether it is still in circulation, noting her aunt of 40 years in France had never heard it.
Why it matters: The research gives English-speaking monoglots — who Cosslett argues are an outlier on a bilingual planet — a concrete neurological incentive to push past the embarrassment of making mistakes while learning a new language. The columnist frames a 13-year brain-ageing benefit as a reason to embrace the very vulnerability that puts off so many learners.
