10 Fantastic Reasons to Learn a Foreign Language
Most people learn foreign languages out of necessity, be it a job requirement or a compulsory language in college. What they see is the commercial aspect of learning languages. However, the biggest incentive to pick up a language lies in its human aspect, as we are highly developed beings with a sense of curiosity and belonging. This article will open your mind to what learning a foreign language can bring.
Boost Your Career Prospect.
This is perhaps the most popular reason for people to pick up a foreign language. Language is a perk that can repeatedly work for you in different levels of your career. Apart from significantly increasing your chance of being employed fast, you will have better opportunities for promotions and overseas placements. If you are an entrepreneur, mastering foreign languages will make it easy for you to penetrate new untapped market.
Enrich Your Life With Foreign Culture.
Mastering a foreign language will open doors to appreciating foreign music, movie, literature, legends, plays and so on. You get to enjoy the original script and heady presentation that may otherwise be lost in translation as there are bound to be discrepancies in translation.
Make The Most Out Of Your Holidays.
Most of the times, being a tourist in another country makes us, well, a tourist. Your ability to blend in and experience the culture first hand and to participate in their everyday activities in hindered by your lack of communication. Besides having difficulty in executing the most simple tasks like looking for a washroom, you’ll most probably paying more for services and goods as a ‘tourist’.
If you speak the same language as the locals, you’ll be pointed to the most authentic local food joints, get to chat with the locals, visit all the little-known local destinations and do so much more at a deeper level. Instead of being a surface tourist and do the things tourists do, you make the most of your travelling experience.
Boost Your Self Confidence.
Don’t it feel good to be able to speak a language your family members and colleagues are not familiar about? As shallow as it seems, this is only the tip of the iceberg. Certainly you don’t gloat about knowing a foreign language, but who can deny its advantages when it comes to impressing your boss, that cute girl in HR, your future in-laws or anyone else in that matter.
Anybody can use a bit of pick-me-up when they are feeling vulnerable and insecure at times. Don’t think you have the necessary experience to ace that interview? Highlight you language skill in your cv. Feeling nervous about public speaking? Start your speech with a French quote and take it from there. The best part is, once you master a language, it’s yours to keep forever. No one can steal it away from you.
Increase Understanding Of Your Own Race And Culture.
Mastering another language will enable you to look at things from a different perspective. As you gain insights into a foreign language and culture, you will have means of comparing it with your own culture and how those cultures originated. This will not only broaden your horizon, it will offer you a new pair of eyes in living and appreciating the little things you’ve always took for granted.
Engaging Yourself With Like-minded Friends Across Borders.
You never know what awaits you once you reach out to beyond your comfort zone. Some people made friends that changes their world, found their living purposes and some met the love of their lives. Could your calling be teaching orphans in a developing country? Maybe getting that snail mail from Timbuktu will bring cheers to a really rotten day? How about testing that traditional spicy recipe you got from the womenfolks at a remote village in Sichuan for dinner?
Increase Your Appreciation For Life, People And Heritage.
You see a bigger picture of the world when you master a foreign language and do some exploring of your own. People with the most exposure are usually humbled by the knowledge that the world is really colorful creation with various types of people, each with different sets of heritage and ways of living albeit sharing the common gift of love.
Broaden Your Choice Of Overseas Universities.
Thinking of studying abroad but don’t want to end up in huge study loan debt? Mention studying abroad and you’ll most likely think of high demand countries like U.K, U.S or Australia. Apart from being the countries with the highest currency values and highest living cost, the admission requirements are also higher and harder to obtain.
In this case, knowing foreign languages such as Spanish or Mandarin will open doors to equally fantastic Universities in lesser targeted countries. You can easily blend in with the locals and your resume will easily stand out against others, plus, people will be very interested to find out about the years you spent abroad in countries they have probably never been to themselves.
Turbo Charge Your Cognitive Learning Abilities.
Learning a foreign language exercises the mind as it involve utilising different skills such as memorizing, recognizing different types of sentences and mastering pronunciation. This translates into increase cognitive learning such as maths, literature and arts. People who learn foreign language seem to have better mental flexibility and creativity in reasoning, conceptual thinking and thinking outside the box. Learning a second language also delay the onset of dementia.
It’s Fun!
Learning a language becomes second nature once you stop treating it as a task and start to look at it as an application. People will have extra interest about you, your exposure to foreign culture and the stories you can tell them about that culture. People will like you. Before you know it, you will be the center of attention and telling people about this foreign culture will come in handy as an ice breaker at parties. You are able to talk in codes with your fellow classmates and friends. You’ll even inspire others to master a second ot third language. This alone will give you that deep satisfaction to pick up a foreign language today.
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Steff X spent her faraway teenage years marvelling about languages. Growing up in a multi-racial country, she speaks 4 languages and have finally started on learning French after much procrastination. She aimed to help people like her begin their journey in language learning through her informative website, http://www.lingo101.com, a must-view resource site for language lovers Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Steff_X |
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