The Importance of Language In This Modern Day And Age

As I’m sure all of you will know, we use languages for many different things. Whether it’s to express our feelings and desires, or to communicate and understand each other, languages always will have a firm grip on the world, no matter how changing it is at the moment. Now ask yourself, how could learning a second, third, or even fourth language benefit me throughout my life in so many different ways? In this article I will be explaining how useful having more than one language under your belt can be, in both your personal and business life. Just to clear things up, whilst this article primarily highlights the benefits of languages as a whole, it is by no means a petty persuasion piece, but (I hope) a pleasantly convincing article about the pros (and cons if there are any!) of languages. So, enough about me explaining about what the article is going to be, but more about what learning other languages can do for you!

Firstly, I think that it’s important to start with the personal benefits of being able to speak/write/hear more than one languages

Travelling to other countries

This is a major incentive to learn another language other than your mother tongue. What’s worse than not being able to understand the Spanish locals on a trip to Machu Picchu? It is basically guaranteed that you will have a much better time at your holiday destination when you know the language. What’s more, you will be able to absorb in the culture and way of life in these exotic countries that you usefully know the language of. Being able to speak to the locals and hear their stories, will be much more fascinating and informative than a translated booklet will ever be.

Learning another language sets up our brains in more efficient and absorbing ways

Let’s say, for example, that we are growing up only learning Western English. Our brains would be set up in a way that makes us see reality how our language (and thus Western Civilisation) sees it. This is where learning another language broadens our horizons and allows us to see and comprehend the world in ways and different ways. Benjamin Whorf, linguistic researcher said that ‘learning other languages could be beneficial because it would free our minds from such linguistic constraints’(source : http://medicalxpress.com). He is saying that one can embrace new concepts about life and other cultures if you have learnt more than one language.

Learning language(s) is HUGELY beneficial to many job/business careers

This is another great incentive for learning languages. For whatever path of life you choose (or have chosen) to take, I’m truly confident that languages can benefit you in so many different ways. First off, languages give you a much broader range of countries that you want to work and live in. Let’s say you wanted to be a Marine Biologist in Costa Rica for 10 years, but only if you could speak Spanish. As I have stated before, you would get much more out of your job than you would if you only knew your mother tongue language. Companies nowadays want multi-lingual employees so they can globalize and expand into numerous countries. Learn a language, and your CV would look so much more handy and interesting, especially in today’s competitive markets and lack of jobs. I was attending a law lecture recently, and the experienced lawyer was talking about how all of the companies wanted to give their contract to someone who stood out. He said that many of these companies were looking for a bi, tri, or quad-lingual person to employ, as they stood out above the rest. Only 1 employee out of every 2000 is usually given a contract in law, showing how competitive the world is now.

Final review

Being bilingual myself (my father spoke German to me from a young age), being able to speak more than one language has benefited me hugely. What’s more, I am attempting (attempting!) to learn French, Spanish and Latin. Of course it is up to you, but I hope I have convinced you to at least have a g at learning at least one more language. You never know, you might just take off with one language, and decide to learn another! Please let me know in the comment section what languages you might speak, or learning.

Thanks

-J

It is a well known fact that once you have learnt more than one languages, your braads papaya to this particular way f learning, thus making it easier to learn another! Also, learning Classics, such as Latin or Greek, tremendously helps with your language learning, as these were the rots of all languages, meaning that there will be many similarities