It’s never too late to learn a language

“This is your brain on French”

In William Alexander’s insightful book Flirting with French, we are taken on a journey through the highs and lows of learning a foreign language in one’s later years. 

His fascinating journey involves Rosetta Stone levels, podcasts, audio courses, immersion courses, French TV, two French pen pals, and scientific research.

He begins with an MRI scan to determine his brain’s activity when listening to French, and when the scans are repeated a year later, they show significantly more activity in the language centres of his brain.

Additionally, the author’s neurocognition scores (a performance-based method to assess the many aspects of cognitive functioning) rocketed from the 55th to the 84th percentile. He realises he has “stumbled quite by accident across the strategy to keeping my brain sharp and functioning as I move from middle to old age.” 

“Studying French has been like drinking from a mental fountain of youth! I revitalised my brain merely by studying French. And as a bonus, I can order dinner in Paris.”