Who knew that exercise was THIS good for us? The New York Times recently came out with an article that riding a bike or working out in general can help people "memorize and retain words in a foreign language." So now there are NO more excuses to get on that exercise bike! It seems that exercise helped not only with memorization of words but also "deepened language learners grasp of how rouse their newly acquired words".What is most interesting to me is how the benefits of excercsising while learning a language continued even a month after the instruction! Give it a try! i may introduce hikes and biking into my Lurie Language Studios offerings! best time to learn a language is during childhood, but the second-best time is now. Learning a second language, even later in life, is shown to stimulate the brain and improve memory as well as reading skills. M illions of people around the world acquire their second language later in life.

Researchers at the University of Edinburgh examined a group of individuals at age 11 and again at age 70 and found that those who had acquired a second language performed significantly better than predicted from their baseline cognitive abilities at age 11. Read more about the study here.

Learning languages like Russian, Arabic or Chinese, however, can be difficult to pick up in adulthood, as they have little in common with English grammar, spelling, or sounds. Romance languages pose less of a challenge, as it's much easier to see the ties to modern English.

It is therefore important to choose a second language that will challenge, but not overwhelm you! Do you have friends or family members who speak your target language?