The Benefits of Bilingualism

The U.S. newspaper, The New York Times, has a great piece on the benefits of being bilingual.  It turns out that not only does it increase the number of people you can communicate with, but it generally just makes you a smarter person!  Writes the author Yudhijit Bhattacharjee, "The collective evidence from a number of such studies suggests that the bilingual experience improves the brain’s so-called executive function — a command system that directs the attention processes that we use for planning, solving problems and performing various other mentally demanding tasks. These processes include ignoring distractions to stay focused, switching attention willfully from one thing to another and holding information in mind — like remembering a sequence of directions while driving." Wow! So being bilingual helps you focus, helps you remember, and may prevent the early onset of diseases like Alzheimer's and dementia.

All of us here at C.E.I.P. Lope de Vega already knew that being bilingual is totally awesome, but it's great to know that we're helping our brains stay fit, too!

Read the article here.

- Robyn

(Photo via.)

National Capitals

"But what does 'D.C.' stand for?"

This week, in Fifth Level, we're learning about cities and their sites.  We've been practicing our vocab for museums, monuments, cafes, cinemas, libraries, and everything else our towns and cities have to offer.  But why not learn a little bit about national capitals?!  The students have prepared posters and presentations on London, Belfast, Cardiff, and Edinburgh, as well as Madrid - their own national capital city.  So I thought that I'd share a bit about my capital city, Washington D.C.

The students loved seeing all the sights that D.C. has to offer, and were amazed at just how big all of the monuments were!

Check out the slideshow on Washington D.C.

- Robyn

B-E-E

Oh, spelling. It's tough. It's embarrassing. It never gets any easier.

Some of my earliest memories are of learning how to spell in Mr. Takuda's first grade class, the most vivid being when I finally tackled that tricky word, computer.  Maybe I'd be a bigger fan of spelling if I'd gone to C.E.I.P. Lope de Vega, where we regard good spelling as the coolest thing someone can do by participating in the annual Spelling Bee!

We've been practicing all year with different types of spelling - phonetic, letter guessing, dictation, and good ol' letter-for-letter.

Stay tuned for updates on the Spelling Bee!

- Robyn