Advantages of Bilingualism -

As Frank Smith Quotes that "One language sets you in a corridor for life. Two languages open every door along the way", It is therefore seen that speaking two languages rather than just one has  practical benefits in an increasingly globalized world. Of recent research  has shown that the advantages of bilingualism are even more fundamental than being able to converse with a wider range of people. Being bilingual opens up your way to the global world and makes you smarter in every thing you do. 

In contrast to the early research on bilingualism which indicated  a second language to be an interference that hindered a child’s academic and intellectual development, Recent studies have shown that bilingualism helps children to develop their abilities in two or more languages throughout their school years and they gain deeper comprehension of language and how to use it explicitly

Bilingualism is therefore of cognitive and social-emotional advantage. In the research of (Zelasko and Antunez, 2000) that individuals who are bilingual switch between two different language systems. Their brains are very active and flexible. They also showed that bilingual people have an easier time in understanding math concepts, solving word problems more easily and developing strong thinking skills 

Bilingual people can therefore communicate more easily with a wide range of people within families and across communities and generations of different social contexts. They are able to read and write in more than one language and therefore exposed to new literature, traditions, ideas and culture and this fosters them to tolerate other cultural groups.

The bilingual experience appears to influence the brain from infancy to old age.  The study conducted by Tamar Gollan  found that the elderly individuals with a higher degree of bilingualism — measured through a comparative evaluation of proficiency in each language — were more resistant than others to the onset of dementia and other symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease: the higher the degree of bilingualism, the later the age of onset.