Multilinguals are more perceptive to their surroundings and better at focusing in on important information.

By learning a foreign language, the multilingual speaker is opened up to the perspective, culture and history of another region, thereby expanding his mind (and his brain) to new facets of life that he may not have considered if he spoke only his native language. There are words in French and German and most other languages that don’t have an equivalent word in English, so therefore that foreign word is used in an English conversation or it’s expressed with a long explanation.

For example, Savoir faire is the ability to act or speak appropriately in social situations. I could say that John has an impressive savoir faire, or I could say he has an impressive ability to act or speak appropriately in social situations. The shorter option, I think, is the better one…that is assuming the person you’re speaking to will know that word. There are many such examples.

Click here to read the full article at The Atlantic.