A growing up in a bilingual world

The organization The Hanen Centre posted some facts and statistics about childhood bilingualism on their site. Some of the numbers are quite surprising! 21% of kids in the US are being raised bilingual. Awesome!

Here's an excerpt of the article with some of the key points presented.

...
Our world is becoming increasingly multilingual. Consider some of the following statistics:
In Canada....

• 11.9 % of the population speaks a language other than English or French at home. In Toronto, 31% of the population speaks a language other than English or French at home.

In the United States....

• 21% of school-age children (between ages 5-17) speak a language other than English at home. This number is projected to increase in the coming years.

Worldwide, it is estimated that....

• there are more second language speakers of English than native speakers.

• there are as many bilingual children as there are monolingual  children.

...

I personally found the stats about school-aged kids in the US surprising, but I suppose I shouldn't. I have been living abroad since 2007, and every time I visit home I am amazed by how much more diverse it it. I'm originally from the DFW area in North Texas.

They go on to present some benefits derived from being bilingual.

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• Bilingual children are better able to focus their attention on relevant information and ignore distractions. For more information, click here for our article “Are Two Languages Better Than One?”.

• Bilingual individuals have been shown to be more creative and better at planning and solving complex problems than monolinguals.

• The effects of aging on the brain are diminished among bilingual adults.

• In one study, the onset of dementia was delayed by 4 years in bilinguals compared to monolinguals with dementia.

• Bilingual individuals have greater access to people and resources.

• In Canada, employment rates are higher for French/English bilinguals than monolinguals.

• Canadians who speak both official languages have a median income nearly 10% higher than that of those who speak English only, and 40% higher than that of those who speak French only.

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Still need more reasons why you should teach your kids that second language?

Read the original article here.