When Jewish kids in the Diaspora are taught Hebrew, the purpose is not primarily to make vacationing in Israel easier, but to put it to liturgical use and to make thousands of years of Jewish tradition more accessible.
However, I’d like to believe that with the language we not only open intellectual avenues, but enable the student to experience the world differently, to see it colored by the sensitivities and the rich experiences of generations of Jews from the recent and distant past.
Now, a new study of bilingual people sheds light on how, indeed, to see the world differently, to experience it from the vantage point of different cultures. Even the simple act of describing a color becomes enriched:
Panos Athanasopoulos, of Newcastle University, has found that bilingual speakers think differently to those who only use one language. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Arie Folger 
Mikolot Mayim Rabbim 