With the advent of modern day communications, travel and commercial activity the world has become a smaller place, with people having an increasing level of interaction with people from a different country, culture region and languages. With such diminishing borders and related developments it only goes to highlight that we need to be ready to upskill ourselves. A language is the most basic method of upskill that we can start, if we remember even before mathematics or science, we learnt the alphabets of a language in our kindergarten schooling.
As we see the world, with a constant need to upskill, learning a new language is the right first step. In favour of the above ,we will share our insights to the aspects where learning a new language has a far reaching impact on our lives .
1. Professional requirements & access to more opportunities
In a globalised world where organizations are having a presence in practically every country of the world, more tha languages a person knows the better the comfort level in working such multi-natopnal organizations, where one as a part of work responsibilities has to interact with people of different languages. Imagine the difficulty in day to day working if one is unaware of the language which could have made the day to day routine a cakewalk ? Organisations consider their able employees as readily deployable in new and exciting projects and ventures across geographies. Nothing beats the edge of knowing an additional language which will give you the brownie points of being selected for such project but also make your work super smooth, making you poised for a growth in career. Imaging a working professional like a doctor,lawyer or architect being able to comprehend in an additional language with their client allowing him to better understand and make accurate actions in terms of their respective nature of work.
2. Unlocking new geographies for travel
Most of us like to travel and an overseas travel location may not have the same language as yours. By statistics, if you know just the English language , you can only communicate with 20% of the world’s population. Imagine the discouragement to travel simply because you wont be able to read or understand or speak the language of a destination, so beautiful that it’s a must visit in a lifetime. Knowing an additional language gives us the confidence to travel overseas as we can not only communicate and comprehend the language aspect but it also gives us the pleasure and privilege of understanding the people, the culture and way of life of that region as we come across people .I am aware of people who made distant friends simply because they could interact well with the people of the country they travelled to.
3. Increased receptivity and understanding of cultures and people.
Historically it has been known that languages have allowed for the intermixing of people and cultures giving rise to newer cultures and civilizations. Knowing an additional language allows an individual to have an ability to understand people from a different part of the world better. Helping understand their culture with the help of the language helps eliminate the reluctance or the preconceived notions an individual would have prior to any interaction with people from a different part of the world. An indirect consequence though, however an important one, that knowing an additional language helps us respect and understand people from across the world.
4. Increased cognitive ability
According to some studies, learning a language can spur increased mental activity. Learning a language involves the memory, logic and speech centres of the brain as we read, assimilate the alphabet, words and sentences in a new language. Learning the grammar , pronunciation of a language would spur activity in our logic and speech centers of the brain. A benefit towards our mental ability besides all the benefits of learning a new language is definitely a bonus. With an increased ability, it makes us easier to learn more and more of languages as it attunes our mind to learning patterns, which have taken a long interval, since our first languages are learnt in the very initial age of our schooling.
5. Enhancement in our creative expression
A benefit which is not often thought of, but is of immense importance in our communication through our earlier learnt languages. Enriched with the knowledge of a new language , we can clearly enhance our creativity in our communication and make an impactful delivery of our ideas to people at large either through verbal or written media. There is frequent usage of foreign expressions into English Language , with many words now a part of the English dictionary having an origin from foreign languages.
6. Increased self confidence.
Wouldn’t you feel excited when you have learnt something new ? Something with so many benefits? A new skill as big as an additional language ,is sure to add confidence to a person. The confidence of knowing an additional language will radiate from your persona when your social circles know an “X” number of languages while you know an X+1 or an X+2 languages. It will surely get you some praise for the effort and people who have been willing to learn a new language, be even your admirers !