By learning to think and communicate in another language, students create new possibilities in life. The many benefits of multilingual education include:
- Stimulating innovation by developing the ability to conceptualize situations and formulate approaches in different ways, recognize patterns more effectively, and experiment more readily.
- Enhancing social skills by strengthening empathy and exposing students to ideas, cultural norms, situations, and behaviors different from those in their native environment.
- Strengthening confidence and problem-solving skills by challenging students to reach beyond the comfort of their native language, learn from mistakes, and overcome obstacles.
- Forging new relationships through engagement with people and exposure to places that students may not have encountered otherwise.
- Appreciating diversity by seeing the world through different lenses and recognizing that there are many equally valid perspectives, often multiple viable paths to an objective, and sometimes no clearly “right” answers.
- Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (Deutsch): Lustig klingende Wörter
- Goethe-Institut (Deutsch): Früh übt sich: zweisprachige Kindergärten
- Goethe-Institut (English): A Head Start: Bilingual Kindergartens
- National Public Radio (English): 6 Potential Brain Benefits Of Bilingual Education
- New York Times (English): Why Bilinguals Are Smarter
- Süddeutsche Zeitung (Deutsch): Kinderleicht: Zweisprachig aufzuwachsen, ist fast immer ein Gewinn
- The Hola Blog (English): Myth vs. Fact: Bilingual Language Development
- University of Edinburgh (English):Bilingualism Matters