Words are sharp weapons.  They speak  with their letters, but especially, with the use we give them: the way we pronounce them, the gestures that go with them, the context, the objective. They are pure emotion and therefore can sometimes play us a trick.

How can we be more cerebral when talking? Easy: you have to learn another language. It is said that being at least bilingual, can “save your life”.

A research conducted by the University of Chicago, USA, published in the Psychological Science journal, found out that people who speak a second language make better decisions.  It turns out that  when addressing a situation with a foreign language we feelless emotional than with our mother language. Analyzing in another language does not generate the same anxiety that we normally feel because words do not have the same burden of effects and emotions than in the mother language, which also allows to be more analytical.

This decrease in the affective burden when using words in another language is given both, in work and in love situations.  It has also been proven that logical thinking is more used when speaking in another language.

Then, for the Latinos, wouldn’t it be more convenient to discuss with our couple in English? Or request for a raise in French? What about requesting our neighbor to fix his broken pipe, but do it in German?

In which situations has knowing another language been helpful for you?

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Original article in Spanish

http://es-us.mujer.yahoo.com/blogs/desesperadas/ser-bilingue-150318221.html