Noah Sweeney started learning French the moment he was signed up for hockey and baseball in Quebec City as a five-year-old anglophone. Nearly 18 years later, he is still learning — having continued his French education through elementary and high school, university and now at his job where he speaks with the majority of customers in French. "It's just a harder language to grasp because of all the rules," said Sweeney.
"[It was] definitely a huge struggle. There's only a little pocket of English people here, especially in Quebec City. Definitely was a challenge growing up.
" But he says there's no downside to being bilingual and that, increasingly, most of his francophone friends are able to speak two languages. Noah Sweeney says learning French comes with its own set of challenges but has been rewarding. (Rachel Watts/CBC) As French-English bilingualism in Quebec has for the most part been on the rise since the early 1960s — with almost one in two people being able to have a conversation in Canada's two official languages in 2021 — recent studies involving Montreal researchers now point to tangible cognitive benefits of speaking two languages.
Not only does bilingualism help maintain brain health following an Alzheimer's diagnosis, but speaking two languages could help make the brain more efficient at any age. Bilingual kids gain benefits in literacy skills Bilingualism boosts the brain at all ages That comes as no surprise to Stephen Aronson, who speaks English and Fren.
