Learning Chinese: good or bad for the brain? (London)

I’ve been telling students over the years that they won’t get Alzheimer’s learning Chinese.  

Now I’m going to add, “You might not get Alzheimer’s, but your brain will be completely scrambled*.”

* from the homophones, the tones, the lookalike characters (e.g., 天 tiān / sky, day vs 夭 yāo / to die young), and the word order.

(London, 2017)