Top benefits of learning a new language
This article explains the various benefits of learning a new language. It makes our travelling experience rich. It helps us understand distinct cultures and customs. It boosts our memory power and helps us immensely in our careers.
Introduction
Language is a means to communicate with others. Imagine a world without any words spoken. It would be so difficult to understand each other. Through language, we can express ourselves, share what we know, and learn what the other person has to say. It is a gateway to new beginnings. All of us can speak at least one language. It can be the language that we learn in our home or spoken in the surroundings in that we live. When we go to school, we come across many more languages. When we move to a different city, state or country, we come across people speaking different languages. Some languages are easy to understand because they might be a little familiar with the languages that we already know or speak. Some languages sound very unique. Every language has its own rich culture and story beneath it. Some languages are widely spoken worldwide and some of them remain limited within a tribe or a group of people. We might have come across people who speak more than one language. They have this ease within them with which they quickly learn the language of the place they reside in or the group of people they are spending time with. They are real charmers. Sometimes it makes us wonder that how good it would feel to learn more languages and impress everyone with our multilingual skills. This article explains the various benefits of learning a new language.Benefits of learning a new language
When we only know one or two languages, we can only communicate with those people who speak those languages. When we learn a new language, our social circle also widens. The more languages we learn, the easier it becomes for us to interact with people coming from different parts of the world. How exciting it would be to be of help to someone as we can understand them and speak their language.
Many of us have faced lots of difficulties when travelling to different states or countries. It is because of the language barrier. Travelling becomes fun when we can understand the local dialect. We can explore that area in a much better way and that too on our own. We can have a good time with locals when we can mingle with them. They will have so much to share with us and freely express themselves. When we return after our vacation, we will carry with us not just memories of the place but a good understanding of the people living in that region.
People living around us and throughout the world practice different customs and represent different cultures. There are certain cultures that we might want to peek into. Something about them makes us curious and we want to learn about them. However, to get into the depth, we have to go through the literature, watch films and listen to music. Though we can read, watch and listen to the translated ones, something gets lost in translation. However, if we can understand the language, we can immerse ourselves in the culture through literature, songs and films.
When we learn more local languages, we are increasing our chances of securing a good job in different regions of the nation. When we learn an international language, we can get a job abroad where that language is spoken widely. Also, there are certain sectors where knowing more languages is considered beneficial such as in the travel and tourism department where the employees need to handle guests from worldwide. Knowing different languages is considered to be an impressive trait and thus, it adds up to the profile and helps in creating a good resume that attracts lots of jobs.
Learning a new language is like an exercise for the brain. It is because the brain has to work hard to learn new words, frame sentences, learn the accent, and get familiar with the grammar. It has to learn as well as revise frequently. When the brain is exercised regularly, it sharpens. Focus and attention span increase. Thus, learning a new language increases memory power. It makes the brain ready to learn more and more and acquire more skills. Exercising strengthens the brain muscles and improves mental health which contributes to overall health.
When we keep doing the same things that we know, we do not prosper ourselves. We restrict ourselves from getting in touch with millions of opportunities that are out there. When we decide to learn something new, we are setting ourselves free. We are letting ourselves out there on an adventure. When we learn a new language, we learn about the people that speak that language. We learn about their culture, customs, and background and naturally start comparing ours with theirs. Comparison helps us progress in the areas that we lack and be grateful for what we have. We may be humbled with what we have and this kind of humbleness that we develop is we might never have experienced before in our lives.
Whether it is a personal or professional life, we all know how important people are to us and how necessary it is to build connections. We cannot live on our own and strive on our own. We are social animals and for that, we need to form bonds to strive in our personal life and build connections to progress in our professional life. The more languages we speak, the more easily we can communicate with a wider range of people. We open ourselves very easily to the world. We connect with people and we become a part of their community which is necessary to shape us. We may find our best friend, the love of our life, a career path that we were always looking for or a new way of preaching religion and dwelling in spirituality. This all happens just because we made effort to learn a new language.
A very relevant article. This is useful for all.
Language is the strongest communication tool for humans. It is an added advantage for humans much more than that available to other species.
As a technician can use better skills using more tools suited for the job, we can communicate better and more effectively by learning new languages. Many of human problems arise from lack of understanding, mis-understanding or miscommunicating. Many good relationships and associations are spoiled for ever by a small miscommunication or misunderstanding due to language issues. I had a firsthand experience of dealing and solving a fiery industrial relations issue in my workplace between a male and female colleague. There were no prior issues between them. But suddenly it all blurted out and was almost to spoil the entire industrial relation atmosphere in an otherwise congenial workplace. The man the woman were having different mother tongues. While they were having some discussion in their local union meeting, the man said a word denoting that the lady should use respectful words in such meetings. But the lady misunderstood it as calling her a lady of ill repute.
During the enquiry process I was also involved due to my position as well as a person knowing both the languages. So from my enquiry only I found out the reason. The normal conversational word used by the man in his mother tongue language meant a negative sense in the lady's mother tongue. There was no intention from the man to ridicule or disrespect the woman as hat he said was a very normal word used in normal; conversations where people point out t each other to be more respectful. It took a lot of time and explanation and counselling by me to set right the issue and the man was issued a memo asking him to be more discreet in future.
It took a lot of time and explanation and counselling for me to set things right and solve the issue and it entailed to get a written apology from the man and also issue a memo to the him to be more discreet in future.
It was only my knowledge of the two languages that helped in firefighting.
So as far as possible we should all try to learn as many languages as possible. That will help in more friends, more good relations and saving many relationships from damage.