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How often have you questioned how you remember things? Apparently if you are multilingual things you are more likely to remember things better in your second language.

According to one study published by the Journal of Experimental Psychology, people apparently remember their memories more accurately when using a second language.

This means they have less false memories.

Professor David Gallo who leads the Memory Research Lab at UChicago said, “When you’re using a second language, it activates this mindset of being more careful with your judgements and your decision making. You might not even be aware that you’re doing this,” he said.

The study focuses on 120 native Mandarin Chinese speakers who also knew English. This experiment found that processing information in a foreign language got rid of false memories.

 Countries with the most linguistic diversity

Aside from the fact that bilingual speakers have special abilities, there are some countries where being multilingual is the norm. Papua New Guinea is highest on the list of countries with the most dialects among its 9.4 million.

Indonesia has the next highest number of languages at 711, Nigeria at 517, India at 456 and the United States 328.

The benefits of being multilingual and other health benefits

In a globalized economy, more businesses want staff that are multi lingual. Listing the number of languages you speak is always going to work in your favour.

There are also multiple social and cultural advantages to speaking many languages. People who are multilingual are also said to be better at solving problems, creative and empathetic.

Research also shows that people who speak more than one language outperform those who speak only one language in terms of cognitive and social tasks from verbal and nonverbal tests to how well they can read other people.

Bilingual people are thought to have greater empathy because they are better at blocking out their own feelings and beliefs in order to concentrate on the other persons.

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The photo above is from Wikipedia