Three-year-old Zein already speaks fluent English, Greek and Arabic and her mother, Joanna Bakalou, hopes she can learn more languages as she grows up.
Ms Bakalou, a Greek sales manager in Dubai, said her daughter picked up the language from her and Arabic from her husband, who is from Iraq. She has also learnt some French words from friends.
“She speaks Greek with me and Arabic with her father. We have a nanny at home with whom she speaks in English. She also goes to nursery,” Ms Bakalou said.
“I want to teach her more languages. I see that she can easily catch new words and when she is with my family she knows they are from Greece and speaks with them in Greek.
“When she is with her friends, she speaks some French words.
“I don’t think we should put more pressure, because speaking three languages fluently is more than enough.
The more languages the pupils speak, the more they have developed the communication skills in the way they present and write information
David Bauza of Jumeira Baccalaureate School in Dubai
“She is exposed to different environments and is very confident. She has become more sociable as she can interact easily due to our different backgrounds.”
Ms Bakalou said everything starts at home and encourages her friends to speak with their children in their native tongues.
For ages, parents have been debating whether children should be exposed to one language, two or several.
Speaking more than one language early in life has many advantages. Here are some of the most important:
1. Learning two languages is exercise for the brain
Speaking more than one language is exercise for the brain because it learns to switch from one to the other.
Research supports this theory of “linguistic exercising".
Scientists at the University of Washington in Seattle found that children from Spanish-American families have an unusually active prefrontal cortex, a part of the brain located at the front, which is responsible for verbal fluency and adaptation to change.
Noah Bauza, 15, a pupil at Jumeira Baccalaureate School, speaks French, Spanish and English, all of which he learnt before he turned 4.
“When I hear something in Spanish, I usually translate it to French or English. It does exercise the brain quite a bit,” he said.
2. Improved cognitive abilities
Carolyn Yaffe, a psychotherapist at Camali Clinic in Dubai, said bilingual people are good at problem solving and critical thinking, and are creative and can easily adapt.
Psycholinguists from the University of Cyprus and scientists from Anglia Ruskin University in England, have shown that bilingualism has a positive effect on the ability to assess information and ignore what is not relevant.
Experts observed that bilingual children are able to process information critically. They are better at filtering out distractions. As bilingual children grow up, they become used to receiving and processing data from two sources and get better at dealing with huge amounts of information.
David Bauza, assistant head of teaching and learning at Jumeira Baccalaureate School in Dubai, said: “The more languages the pupils speak, the more they have developed the communication skills in the way they present and write information.”
He said this reflected in their academic results, particularly in language-heavy subjects, such as history, geography, or even biology, which tended to be slightly better.
“Potentially, this is due to their enhancement of cognitive abilities,” Mr Bauza said.
“They are used to moving from one language to the other and have this ability to switch very quickly, switching languages like switching ways of thinking.”
3. Being bilingual boosts creativity
Studies have found that bilingualism has a positive effect on creativity and people who speak more than one language outperform monolinguals in creative tasks.
Ms Yaffe of Camali Clinic said that speaking more than one language boosted creativity as children were exposed to books, styles of writing and shows in two languages.
Being bilingual also deepened their understanding of cultures.
Research shows that bilinguals tend to notice subtleties and nuances that are difficult for monolinguals. This can be seen particularly in the field of music. With their ability to distinguish sounds and melodies, bilinguals are particularly gifted in this area.
4. Self confidence gets a boost
Linnea Hager, a Grade 10 Swedish pupil at Jumeira Baccalaureate School, speaks Swedish, German and English fluently.
“I think it makes me more confident. Speaking different languages gives you a good range of words and you can understand if people ask you something,” Linnea said.
“The fact that I have a good range of vocabulary and can use it in many different ways can make me more critical and creative in many different ways.
“I'm from Sweden but my dad is from Austria. So I learnt how to talk in German at a young age with my cousins and with my family in Austria. I learnt English at school.”
5. Speaking two languages helps children adapt better
Ms Yaffe said that children who are exposed to two or three languages learnt to adapt better to changes in the environment.
“They learn more about other cultures through language. It really helps them develop tolerance, compassion, empathy. It also provides an educational advantage,” she said.
Mr Bauza said that in his experience pupils who switched between different languages in their daily life and had different accents were able to learn new languages faster.
“They have a higher capacity to learn other languages, and in particular, to get used to the accents, which is a very creative skill that not everybody has,” he said.
For Noah, being multilingual has helped him immensely in communication.
“Speaking Spanish is a big advantage when learning Arabic as these are two really close languages. So when the teacher says something I might not understand, I try comparing it to Spanish and sometimes it works,” he said.
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More from Armen Sarkissian
Record breaker
- The most total field goals made in NBA history, as well as the most consecutive games scoring 10 or more points
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- The only player to play alongside his son; Bronny James was chosen by the Lakers in the 2024 NBA draft
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Sidr Honey
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Samar Honey
The Samar tree trunk, leaves and blossom contains Barm which is the secret of healing. You can enjoy the best types of honey from this tree every year in May and June. It is an historical witness to the life of the Emirati nation which represents the harsh desert and mountain environments
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FIGHT NIGHT
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Hughie Fury v Samuel Peter - Heavyweight co-main event
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The Indoor Cricket World Cup
When: September 16-23
Where: Insportz, Dubai
Indoor cricket World Cup:
Insportz, Dubai, September 16-23
UAE fixtures:
Men
Saturday, September 16 – 1.45pm, v New Zealand
Sunday, September 17 – 10.30am, v Australia; 3.45pm, v South Africa
Monday, September 18 – 2pm, v England; 7.15pm, v India
Tuesday, September 19 – 12.15pm, v Singapore; 5.30pm, v Sri Lanka
Thursday, September 21 – 2pm v Malaysia
Friday, September 22 – 3.30pm, semi-final
Saturday, September 23 – 3pm, grand final
Women
Saturday, September 16 – 5.15pm, v Australia
Sunday, September 17 – 2pm, v South Africa; 7.15pm, v New Zealand
Monday, September 18 – 5.30pm, v England
Tuesday, September 19 – 10.30am, v New Zealand; 3.45pm, v South Africa
Thursday, September 21 – 12.15pm, v Australia
Friday, September 22 – 1.30pm, semi-final
Saturday, September 23 – 1pm, grand final
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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VEZEETA PROFILE
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Cricket World Cup League Two
Oman, UAE, Namibia
Al Amerat, Muscat
Results
Oman beat UAE by five wickets
UAE beat Namibia by eight runs
Fixtures
Wednesday January 8 –Oman v Namibia
Thursday January 9 – Oman v UAE
Saturday January 11 – UAE v Namibia
Sunday January 12 – Oman v Namibia
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Children who witnessed blood bath want to help others
Aged just 11, Khulood Al Najjar’s daughter, Nora, bravely attempted to fight off Philip Spence. Her finger was injured when she put her hand in between the claw hammer and her mother’s head.
As a vital witness, she was forced to relive the ordeal by police who needed to identify the attacker and ensure he was found guilty.
Now aged 16, Nora has decided she wants to dedicate her career to helping other victims of crime.
“It was very horrible for her. She saw her mum, dying, just next to her eyes. But now she just wants to go forward,” said Khulood, speaking about how her eldest daughter was dealing with the trauma of the incident five years ago. “She is saying, 'mama, I want to be a lawyer, I want to help people achieve justice'.”
Khulood’s youngest daughter, Fatima, was seven at the time of the attack and attempted to help paramedics responding to the incident.
“Now she wants to be a maxillofacial doctor,” Khulood said. “She said to me ‘it is because a maxillofacial doctor returned your face, mama’. Now she wants to help people see themselves in the mirror again.”
Khulood’s son, Saeed, was nine in 2014 and slept through the attack. While he did not witness the trauma, this made it more difficult for him to understand what had happened. He has ambitions to become an engineer.
