The diversity of languages in the world is a fascinating phenomenon that has intrigued many scholars and thinkers throughout history. One of the most famous stories that attempts to explain the origin of languages is the biblical myth of the Tower of Babel. According to this legend, God confused the languages of the people who tried to build a tower that would reach the heavens, and dispersed them across the earth, leaving their project unfinished.

Is it possible to overcome this linguistic barrier and achieve a universal understanding among people, as well as a fruitful collaboration and exchange of knowledge? One possible way to do so is bilingualism, or the ability to use two languages for communication purposes. The advantages of learning a second language are numerous and well documented. Bilingual people have access to two different cultural and linguistic resources, which allow them to enjoy literature and cinema in their original versions. Moreover, communication and cooperation skills are among the five essential skills of the 21st century, which determine the success of the individuals, projects, teams and enterprises. Therefore, the biblical vision of people communicating with each other harmoniously aligns with the view of many experts that schools should focus on teaching the five core skills of the 21st century - cohesion, communication, cooperation, creativity and critical thinking. These are also known as soft skills. Soft skills are personal attributes that can be applied in any profession, unlike hard skills (technical, computer, etc.), which are more specific and specialised. Language skills are unique in that they belong to both categories - they are both soft and hard skills, and they are also fundamental skills, along with physical, personal, social and emotional ones. Because of their importance, foreign language learning is included in many national educational programs. Another question is how and when it takes place and whether in the required amount of study hours.

To clarify the place and role of bilingual education, we will also look at the symbolic nature of language, thanks to which our brain "maps" our ideas, or in other words, thanks to which we understand and think. The consideration of the word as a sign has an old tradition that dates back to Aristotle, for whom words expressed by signs are symbols of our ideas. The Stoics of the Megarian School further developed the idea by introducing the notorious semantic triangle/object, word, abstract image/, which has undergone dozens of interpretations to date. We will examine this remarkable formulation of the three dimensions in the signifying process to reveal the benefits to the brain of being bilingual.

Let's illustrate what was written with the following example: when we give the child an apple, pronouncing its sign, i.e. the word “apple”, his/her brain "maps" the sound to the abstract image of the apple.Certainly, this requires many, even thousands of repetitions. If the relations between objects, words and their abstract meanings are mapped in our brain, forming a connection in the form of triangles, then when mastering a second language, these relations are in the shape of pyramids / object, first language word, abstract image, second language word/. The triangle-to-pyramid ratio is a two-dimensional to three-dimensional image ratio. We could infer ourselves when the opportunities to observe or think about an object are more significant: when we see and think two- or three-dimensionally.

To sum up, we can say that learning a second language is always beneficial, as it opens up new opportunities and perspectives for us. The only question left is when is the most optimal time to begin this process.