Being a bilingual-Subajana Jeyaseelan
For a person knowing
more than one language is a great strength. In other words, it is an additional
weapon. In this modern fast moving technological globe mingling with different
community people for various reasons as an academic, professional and so on is
inevitable. Attaining the command in English language will take individuals on
a ladder of success. When we take our country, there are two major languages,
Sinhala and Tamil, which are used by the majority and minority respectively. In
addition to their mother tongues if the individuals from both communities know
English language it will bring them under one roof. Also, it functions as a
bridge for them and will be a gateway to share their emotions, ideas,
friendship and reduce the misunderstanding between them. The president of the
country says that this sprouting new generation should not learn English as a subject
but as a tool of communication. This would, on a long
run, lead the nation and its people live in harmony without calamity.
For the last few years Vavuniya
campus, has enough students from multi-communities. This resulted in
interacting with students from two different communities. Markedly, the medium
of instruction for them is in English which support them to develop their
language skills in plethora ways. Adding to this point, also in the students’
academic curriculum at the campus they have the courses like Proficiency in
English, General English (non-credit subjects) and the Business Communication,
a credit subject. This is a dozen of
opportunities to master the language and become bilinguals. The teachers and the
parents, which is a bounden duty to them, should think how they can facilitate
the students in the learning process.
Further, English language
plays the role as link language.This associtaes different countrymen with
different languages.This alignment gives a huge opening to dissiminate
knowledge and cultivates healthy, amicable friendship. Also it paves way to
develop mutual understanding among the diverse countrymen. Further, many topics can be discussed with
them such as their culture, ceremonial rites and rituals, life-style,
educational as well as professional systems. Also, observing and learning different
attitudes of the people will help shape up our mindset.
Moreover, this is an
interesting point related to being a bilingual. A new research suggests that
stroke victims who are bilingual far more likely to regain their brain
functions rather than who is a monolingual. According to the research findings
it suggests that the mental challenge has some connection with the language
use; that is speaking more than one language can improve the way the brain
deals with strokes, dementia and other damaging influences.
This research was
conducted by using 600 stroke patients as a data and scientifically proved by
the team - based at the University of Edinburgh and the Nizam Institute of
Medical Sciences in Hyderabad, India. Adding to it, they notified that
bilingual and multilingual nearly 40.5 pct are supposed to regain to their
normal mental functions where as monolingual’s proportion was only 19.6 pct the
research shows.
.
The team considered the patients' ages as
well as other factors such as smoking, diabetes and blood pressure to make sure
their results were not attributed to some having a healthier lifestyle.
Holidaying abroad also help people brush
up their language skills by blending with people and those who are recovering
from a stroke can cover themselves with a stroke
travel insurance policy.
According to the researchers the percentage
of bilingual patients whose cognitive functions remained undamaged after their
stroke was over twice as high as for monolingual ones. The likelihood of
post-stroke cognitive impairments, meanwhile, was higher among those who only
speak one language.
The study's co-author, Thomas Bak, says
people who are bilingual communicate by inhibiting one language while
activating another. Switching between languages, keeps the brain in almost
constant training, which could be a factor in helping people recover from
strokes.
In conclusion, being a bilingual not only fills the
communication gap but also it functions as a tonic to maintain physical mental
health. Every individual should realize this fact exorbitantly to activate and
train the cognitive abilities to acquire one additional language such as English,
the global language, in their life.
Reference
(2015, November, 24).Being bilingual ‘aids stroke recovery’ Retrieved from
http://www.world-first.co.uk/home/travel-insurance/medical-problems/being-bilingual-aids-stroke-recovery$69380.aspx
