Learning a new language is essential in today’s society, even if English is widely spoken. Let’s take a deeper dive into why picking up a second language is so beneficial.
Taking up the challenge of learning a new language is a fun and rewarding way to expand your horizons. However, there are many who think it’s pointless to learn a new language because they can get by anywhere in the world speaking just English. But there are occasions when speaking English is useless.
Increases in global commerce, travel, immigration, and other cross-cultural encounters increase the likelihood that you may have to communicate with someone who is not fluent in English or who has a limited command of the language. There have never been more compelling arguments in favor of expanding one’s linguistic horizons. You don’t have to be fluent in many languages, but there are numerous benefits to doing so.
This piece will explain why it’s worthwhile to study a second language even if you just plan to use it rarely.
1. It's excellent for your mental health.
This benefit of studying a foreign language may have escaped your attention. The New York Times, however, reports on studies that demonstrate the cognitive benefits of bilingualism.
Any age is a good age to start learning a new language because it helps with learning new things in general. Learning a new language is difficult, but overcoming that difficulty may help you develop other abilities as well. The more you engage in learning, the more proficiently and rapidly your brain will function.
Constantly expanding one's knowledge base has various advantages:
- enhanced mental capacity
- Enhanced recall
- Improved ability to reason
- Enhanced originality
- Able to solve problems more effectively
- Lengthened capacity to focus
- Strengthened self-control
Learning a second language has been proved to increase general intelligence, not only linguistic intelligence. Harvard University researchers found, for instance, that newborns reared in bilingual households were better able to predict and adapt to changes in their surroundings than those raised in monolingual households.
According to research conducted at the University of Chicago, doing so can help eliminate cognitive biases while making important decisions. Studies have shown that bilingualism reduces the risk of developing dementia and other Alzheimer’s disease symptoms.
2. It'll set you apart as a candidate for jobs.
In today’s very competitive employment market, why wouldn’t you want to offer yourself every advantage? But it’s not just about looking good on paper. In today’s increasingly interconnected world, it’s likely that you’ll interact with coworkers whose native tongue isn’t English. Being able to connect with a development team in India, a manufacturing factory in China, or an alternative energy source in Germany is a huge plus in the eyes of any potential employer.
China Study Abroad (18505) is a full-service agency situated in Beijing, and its managing partner, David Goodman-Smith, believes that their fastest-growing category of students are those trying to improve their work prospects.
3. This improves communication within households.
One of the best ways to get to know your relatives is to learn to speak their original language. If you can communicate with them in their native tongue, you’ll gain insight into their culture that would be difficult to glean from their English.
More so than if all contact was done via an interpreter or translator (particularly if there are several generations between you), you may learn about their culture, history, and traditions just by interacting with them every day. You’ll be able to deepen your relationship with your loved ones and get insight into who you are and where you came from by learning more about their personalities and the motivations behind their actions.
4. Benefits international travel
Learning a new language also facilitates travel since you will be able to interact with locals and decipher signs, menus, and other written materials. Due to its usefulness, the US Defense Language Institute (DLI) even suggests that all service personnel study a foreign language. The DLI website claims that:
“Learning a new language can help you meet people from all over the world, increase your job prospects, and broaden your social circle,” as one author puts it.
If your vacation plans take you outside English-speaking shores, you’ll benefit greatly from brushing up on a second language.
Having a basic vocabulary might be a great icebreaker while visiting a different nation. It’s not the same as having a full discussion in their language, but most people will appreciate your effort even if you have to go back to English right away.
5. Facilitates Intercultural Communication
Language and culture are inextricably linked. Learning Swahili, Hindi, or Mandarin will give you a leg up on learning about Kenyan, Indian, and Chinese cultures, respectively. It’s certainly feasible to do so in any other way, but books and videos can only teach you so much. You can’t get beneath the skin of a people until you learn their language.
Think about attempting to grasp American society without knowing English. Attempting to appreciate the brilliance of Dave Chappelle, Bob Dylan, or Shakespeare without knowing what the words mean would be an impossible task. Without knowing the language, you risk missing out on cultural cues and pop culture allusions.
Learning a new language is a great way to broaden your horizons and have a better grasp on the world around you. Their customs and culture might provide further insight. If you learn French, for instance, the phrase “c’est la vie” will no longer be meaningless to you; you’ll understand it to mean “that’s life.” Maybe a fly isn’t what someone means when they say “Mouche,” or maybe they mean something else completely.
6. Making friends is easier with it.
You may connect with native speakers who share your passion. This is a fantastic way to meet people in your own nation or elsewhere in the world. If you’re learning Spanish and planning a trip to Spain, you could even run into a local who is fluent in both English and Spanish! Meeting people who speak more than one language might lead to stimulating discussions on the various methods used to acquire a second language.
Learning a new language is a win-win for anybody looking to broaden their social horizons and meet new acquaintances.
As long as the world continues to be populated by individuals from all backgrounds and countries, there will always be someone eager to connect with others who share a love of languages.
7. Language acquisition as a whole is sped up as a result.
The more languages you know, the more quickly you can pick up new ones.
The reason for this is because learning a new language forces you to think and communicate in ways that are novel and different from your norm. As a result, your brain’s ability to learn new information is enhanced, making it easier to pick up a second language down the road.
As we’ve already established, learning a new language helps your brain adapt to new situations by exposing it to novel patterns of activity (neuroplasticity). You may use them to improve your ability to learn new languages. This is due to the fact that certain lexical items and syntactical constructions are shared by a great number of language groups. Because of this, it is simpler to learn other languages if you already know how to remember certain words and phrases in one.
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8. Your familiarity with your own language and culture will increase.
When you learn a new language, it improves your comprehension of your native tongue. By understanding how your native language is put together, you’ll get insight into its functioning. You’ll get an appreciation for the similarities and differences between English and other languages.
Native English speakers may learn a lot about themselves and their language in this way. I learnt that many English terms had distinct meanings whether used as nouns or verbs when I started studying Spanish. This clarified for me the logic for the spelling variations in terms that share the same pronunciation (like “plane” and “plain”).
By enhancing our capacity to sympathize with one another, a familiarity with one’s own and other cultures might pave the way to greater tolerance and peace among people of different backgrounds all over the world.
Get ahead in life by expanding your linguistic horizons via language study.
Of course, you needn’t have just one reason to learn a new language; in fact, most individuals do it for a combination of reasons.
We at Go Overseas are not intimidated by the likes of polyglot and multilingual; nor should you be. Take your studies, career, and personal life to the next level by learning a new language.
Considering going overseas to pick up a new tongue? Look through our rated and reviewed databases of international language schools.
