It is never too late to learn something new, be it a practical skill or a glorified hobby. That practice aims to be productive while keeping your wits sharp. But when it comes to truly rewarding use of your spare time, the vocation must be lucrative in every way.
Learning another language is a great way of enhancing capabilities and creating an opportunity to earn more. No doubt, it is an easy way to improve your resume by adding foreign languages to your learned skills.
There are numerous benefits of learning and speaking foreign languages. This article is intended to shed light on some of the key advantages one can gain by investing time in learning the nuances of another language.
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Benefits of Learning A Second Language
It is hard to overstate the benefits of learning a foreign language. In this section, we will explore some of the key benefits of straining your mind and body to learn a new language.
Stimulates The Brain
Time and time again, studies have proved that learning a new language stimulates the brain. In simple terms, it is a positive exertion of the brain to try to learn a foreign language. While it struggled with learning and remembering the nuances, developments take place in its structure and chemistry during this process.
When people speak their language, the brain uses the left side of the brain. Whereas, when they speak a foreign language or a second language, the brain not only stipulates the left side but its whole structure. This does not happen when someone speaks one’s own native tongue.
The mental benefits of learning and practicing foreign languages go beyond immediate benefits. Even some research has shown that it also improves mental resilience and stave off the onset of Alzheimer’s and cognitive decline.
Improves Attention Span
If you are suffering from a lack of attention span, as many people do with each passing day, learning and practicing a new language could turn out to be a proper resolution.
When someone is set to choose a foreign language from a bunch and then direct time and resources, the process helps the brain in retaining a longer attention span and improved defense against distractions.
Speaking a foreign language at a time and then switching back to your own language can serve as a perfect exercise for the brain. This “to and from” motion helps speakers in retaining a recent set of information up close and be “at the edge” for improved speaking.
Opens New Job Opportunities
When someone is living in a diverse, multi-cultural space, doing a foreign language study as a standby can improve the odds to secure a better-paying job. Apart from looking inward, there is a continuous trend of companies going abroad for business.
With the opportunities both domestic and international at hand, companies know that they are better off hiring people who have at least conversation command over foreign languages.
Multiple regions of the world have native languages that are not even remotely related to English. Recently, they have started to engage with international audiences that speak foreign languages for them. It could be a tech start-up in India; a relief effort in Africa; or a supply-chain giant in Germany.
Your choice of language and your will to learn it in the least possible time can surely open new economic prospects for you.
Makes A Better Learner & Tourist
The travel industry has seen a recent setback with quarantine and other lockdown measures. Now with the easing off of border closures and vaccination drives, the industry is getting back on track.
When someone can speak a second language or basic liberal education, it can help one in making benefiting more from their travels. There is no denying that a person with no knowledge of a foreign language and one with conversational command will both see the same places and tourist points. But the latter can learn more about those places and interact with locals in a cordial and friendly way.
In many cases, this could lead to further ties with locals in the form of courtship, job opportunities, and so on. Luckily, there are a lot of foreign language programs that offer easy training.
Boosts Confidence
Often we have watched scenes from the movies or scenarios from the books where people with knowledge of foreign language skills command respect and envy from other people. Even in real life, peers and seniors have great respect for those individuals who can speak more than one language.
But a boost in confidence starts way back. During the foreign language study phase, many people make mistakes in foreign language study; sometimes in front of an audience. This could even lead to hilarious scenes.
When learners pass through such a treacherous phase in practicing a foreign language, they become strong and grow more confident. The appreciation for adversity and learning from them can help them in doing more with other languages.
Leads To Better Decision Making
People are usually attached to the things they hold dear. When dealing with these things, they seldom see reason and think logically. In turn, it hampers their ability to make educated and well-informed decisions.
In contrast to this, a person knowing a foreign language can think in binary terms. By avoiding gray areas and other intellectual pitfalls, they can see through the situation clearly and anticipate outcomes realistically.
When they think and reason in a second or even third language, they distance themselves from the biases and myopic tendencies. The result often ensures maximum satisfaction because the process was deliberate and nearly scientific.
Helps Learn Mother Tongue & Culture
There is a reason why people often find others more aware of their language, culture, and traditions. First of all, it is an exotic idea to learn and investigate other cultures and trace their beginnings. Second, it helps everyone to draw parallels and learn more about themselves.
In a sense, it is a kind of reverse psychology and a benefit that could be hiding in plain sight. When someone starts learning a second language, they instinctively start to make comparisons between that language structure, syntax, and so on from their native one.
This leads to better capabilities in listening, reading, writing, and speaking both languages with ease.
Why Learn A Second Language Is Important (Short Essay Sample)
Even though the world consists of a handful of continents and several cultural regions, it is hard to get in touch with people when they are from a distant place. The greatest obstacle is the lack of knowledge of the language. With the recent advancement in Information Technology, urbanization, and integration of the regions, it has become necessary for people to learn a new language.
Most people learn and speak only a single language in their lifetimes. Often, they do so for securing job opportunities and only learn rudimentary conversational skills.
In reality, the advantages of being able to speak a second or even a third language are too many to count.
For instance, people can make broaden their perspective horizons by getting to know more about other languages, and by extension, other cultures. They become better listeners and problem-solvers by engaging multiple parts of their brains. Students can secure better grades in schools by picking up a foreign language course. They can score better when they cite foreign language courses. Outside the school, they become multifaceted individuals with a better understanding of the world around them.
The growth in immigration, industry, and commerce has already turned the world into a giant neighborhood. Milestones and borders are being redefined. In this scenario, learning another language can improve prospects by multiple folds.
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FAQs
How Important Is Language To Humanity?
Many historians put the evolution of human beings as a sophisticated and dominant specie with the development of a language or more than one language. Even though every specie has its way of communicating with the members of its tribe, it is only humanity that has managed to develop and learn multiple languages to share thoughts and ideas. In turn, these thoughts and ideas have served well in conquering the elements for the sake of human beings. Ultimately, it is the language that has turned a crowd of hunter-gatherers into a modern society. Ironically, it is also the language that can disintegrate into rubble.
What Happens When You Learn A New Language?
The benefits of learning a new craft such as a foreign language have never been disputed. Researchers have often proved that learning a foreign language can increase the functioning of the brain. It gives a positive set of exertion that helps the brain become stimulated and grow. Other than that, people become more attentive and gain perspective of the world around them in an unadulterated scientific manner. People grow more confident and aware of the things surrounding them. Perhaps the best thing that happens when someone learns a new language is their prospects to secure novel job opportunities.
Sources:
- https://www.sciencefocus.com/the-human-body/what-happens-in-our-brain-when-we-learn-languages/
- https://potomac.edu/benefits-of-learning-a-second-language/
- https://www.goabroad.com/articles/language-study-abroad/why-is-it-important-to-learn-a-foreign-language
- https://www.leadwithlanguages.org/why-learn-languages/top-ten-reasons-to-learn-languages/