It takes a lot of mental power to speak more than one language. In fact, being multilingual may help people cope with dementia better than people who speak only one language. Being Multilingual Is An Advantage Scientists think that people who are multilingual have a highly developed sense of inhibitory or cognitive control that is, the ability to focus on one thing, then abruptly switch focus to something else. That’s similar to how people who are multilingual have to mute one language when communicating in another. Several studies have shown that multilingual speakers are better at ignoring distracting or irrelevant information than people who speak only one language.