I know I promised that this week I’d report back on my cull of expenses, but while executive approval is pending, I’ve been thinking about foreign languages instead. This is because I have read yet another article about warding off dementia. Is this a modern trend, this torrent of advice from experts about how to maintain a healthy brain? I don’t remember being bombarded with so much information years ago. Perhaps I didn’t notice it when I was younger because I wasn’t planning to grow old. Or maybe trying to ward off the undesirable effects of ageing wasn’t the sophisticated (and lucrative) industry that it is now. And they certainly know their target audience, namely me.
This article contained all the usual recommendations about diet (who knew your gut was so demanding?), exercise (do some), wearing hearing aids (must I?), socialising more (no, you can’t just stay at home and talk to the cat) and keeping your brain limber. This last one is definitely the most appealing, recommending that we do puzzles, read books, play an instrument or learn a language. I don’t have to be prompted to do crosswords or read, but I have reluctantly decided that playing the recorder is best left to others. Of them all, language learning is the one that inspires me the most. I can just feel those lazy neurons being forced to fire!
I’m always trying to improve my very rusty French and at the moment am doing a 30-day French challenge with my favourite online teacher, Geraldine Lepère. This one is all about wine and although I’m still struggling to remember the difference between cave, chai and grotte, which all seem to mean cave as far as I can recall, the lesson is currently the highlight of my day. I do love languages and my latest craze is Swahili. I know, not much use in my daily life, but that’s half the appeal.
Whenever I travel anywhere I try to learn a few words of the local language, which I have usually forgotten the day after I get home. I do like Japanese, it’s such a gentle, musical language. Arigato has to be one of the prettiest ways to say ‘thank you’. However, to my mind nothing competes with Swahili – it’s so much fun. Hakuna matata, meaning ‘no worries’, is fairly well known because of The Lion King. But who knew the whole film was a thinly disguised Swahili lesson? Simba means lion, Mufasa means king, Pumba actually means stupid or foolish, but is also the common word for warthog, and the list goes on. Jambo is how everyone says ‘hello’ in Swahili and is definitely the most fun you’ll ever have greeting someone. Sawa sawa means ‘okay, all good’. You just want to say it all the time.
However, right now I need to apply myself to French and and the many words relating to wine. Did you know that the French word for a stemmed glass is literally a glass with a foot – un verre à pied? Nearly as much fun as Swahili.
Will learning French counteract all the effects of the Cremant on the brain?
I’ve always understood that Crémant advances brain function?