HOW FICTION AND LANGUAGE LEARNING SHAPE THE BRAIN

Two positive effects from reading.

POSITIVE  EFFECT #1: TEN BENEFITS OF READING FICTION

I will admit that have not been the biggest fan of fiction. And I regret this. There is an air of superiority tied to reading official reports, studies, news articles, and history books, but there is so much to gain from reading fiction!

While I “prefer” nonfiction, my favorite book remains Fitzgerald’s Great Gatsby. What I enjoy most about it is its believability. It’s the classic tale of love lost and the pursuit of wealth. It’s so believable that, in some ways, it’s better than a true story. Fiction expands the mind on real topics in a way that non-fiction does not.

I found a great list of reasons why we should read fiction. Check out this post from the Teddy Book blog and start thinking about cozying up with a good book!

Read the list here.

POSITIVE EFFECT #2: LEARNING A LANGUAGE CHANGES THE BRAIN

Ai is all the rave right now. In particular, there is much noise about the real-time translation capabilities of Chat-GPT 4o. While I will forever herald the benefits of advances in technology, there are things that such advances can never do. In this case, while real-time translation is great for all the languages we don’t know, it should not deter us from learning another language.

There are health benefits that we only gain from language learning. Learning a new language, even later in life, has been shown to improve memory, creativity, and communication skills. 

Cambridge.org has a great article on the benefits of language learning, and there are several others that detail the positive impact. Take a look at the Cambridge article here.

-Myron