In Swedish Academy of young interpreters recruits are taught crash course complex languages. It is not only in military discipline: the doctors found that intensive study of foreign languages stimulates the growth of the hippocampus and causes changes in other brain structures. Known and the benefits of learning languages to prevent Alzheimer's disease.

In Swedish Academy of young interpreters recruits are taught crash course complex languages. For example, young people are offered in 13 months to learn Arabic, Russian or Farsi - language Afghan Tajiks. It is not only in military discipline: the doctors found that intensive study of foreign languages increases the amount of certain brain structures.

The recruits had to learn the language from morning till night, seven days a week, in a very intense pace. Their shock work unexpectedly gave impressive results. Moreover, as shown in the experiment, the value had not just active intellectual activity, namely the study of foreign languages. As a control group, the researchers used the students of the medical University of Umea. Doctors are also known to carefully and learn a lot, but the subject of their cramming for languages had nothing. Both groups underwent MRI before the start of the experiment, and after three months of active learning.

The results were surprising: the structure of the brain control group remained unchanged, but the student who has mastered a foreign language, certain parts of the brain increased in size! In particular, the researchers found they "growth" of the hippocampus - the deep structure of the brain responsible for the development of new knowledge, orientation in space and consolidation of short-term memory to long-term.

"We were surprised to see that different parts of the brain are developed to different degrees depending on how well the student has done the job and how much effort they had to do this to make" - said Johan Mortensson from Lund University.

The group translation students also found changes in the three areas of the cerebral cortex. Students who have had greater growth in the hippocampus and superior temporal gyrus, had better language skills than other. And the most diligent students of growth was observed in the middle frontal gyrus.

Scientists have long said that the study of languages is almost miraculous effect on the brain. The fact that the study of foreign languages and literature makes "gray matter" to work with maximum intensity. For example, in 2010 the Israeli researchers found that read in Arabic will use both hemispheres of the brain. (This effect does not read English or even Hebrew, although the latter also belongs to the Semitic languages).

Moreover, it is curious that so actively Arabic involves only the brain students: children who are just learning to write, and foreigners studying Arabic in adulthood. In adults native speakers when reading activates only the right hemisphere.

In 2004, neuroscientists from the University College in London using magnetic resonance imaging examined 105 employees, 25 of whom spoke only English, 25 knew English and another European language, 33 were bilingual - owned second language since childhood, and 22 came from other European countries and knew not only their native language, but English (as a foreign language).

Scientists found that in all of the subjects who owned two languages, was increased density of the cerebral cortex in the bottom part of the parietal lobe. The most intensively these changes were expressed in those study participants who spoke two languages since my childhood.

"Our data show first of all that the study of foreign languages is necessary to be engaged in his youth, when the brain is most malleable, " said Dr Andrea Michelle, lead author of the study. And the longer one delays the acquisition of a second language, the less chances for success".

Great if you had the opportunity to learn a second language in childhood or adolescence. But despite the categorical statement of a scientific, teaching foreign languages in adult and even old age can bring many benefits.

American researchers claim that employees of firms, speaking a foreign language, and cope better with intellectual challenges than those who speak only their native language. Bilingual people much better focus on important information and ignore the irrelevant data, and therefore show better results in tests of intellectual ability and the best success in your work. For example, those who know other languages beside my own, better prioritize and work on more than one project at a time.

"The main cognitive advantage of bilinguals is the ability to do several things simultaneously", - explained the researchers. The need to switch between two languages allows bilingual people to exercise your brain thus, as it is not possible to do for those who only speak one language.

As for the benefits of mastering foreign languages in old age, the research of other groups of scientists have shown that it helps protect the brain from ageing. Older people who speak foreign languages, brain works better than those who speak only their native language. The probability of the occurrence of Alzheimer's disease and other senile memory problems are significantly lower than those of their peers who speak only their native language. The study of foreign languages is a kind of exercise for the brain, which helps to maintain clarity of thought and the ability to learn at any age. The level of education a person has little or no role.