There are around 370 million native speakers of English and over 978 million English people who speak it as a second language. It is the language of business, travel and international relations. For English speakers, it can seem as if there is no need to learn any other language. Yet, there are a number of benefits of learning new languages, benefits I would like to share with you. For people who are new to the English language, learning English is equally rewarding.
Learn to Deal with the Unknown
The unknown has always been associated with risk and so, people become very uneasy, and stressful when they have to navigate through it. For people who embrace language learning, success stems from embracing the unknown. When you start on your language learning journey, you have to come to terms with the fact that there is a lot that you do not know. Everything is unknown. You don’t even know how to tell people what your name is.
Learning means accepting that so much is unknown and embracing it as something exciting and enriching. You will have conversations in which you do not understand large parts of what is being said. You have to be willing to pay attention and search for meaning from keywords that stand out, and to stop the conversation to get clarity. These are things that people often find uncomfortable, and things which language learning shows us are necessary to success.
Increase Your Job Prospects
Remote work has ruptured the relationship between work and where you live. It means that a person can live in one place and work in another. You no longer have to look for work in your own country, you can compete for jobs across the world. It’s here where you realize that possessing another language is key. You need to know the language of the countries you want to work in.
Businesses have changed in many other ways as well. Just as remote workers can compete for jobs globally, companies can compete for clients globally. This means that many businesses will have some international clients and getting people to communicate with those clients in their language is very important.
Language learning will also help your general confidence level. The feeling of accomplishment when you learn a new language, or when you move from one level to another, from beginner English to intermediate English, for example, is so powerful. It will make you feel like you can accomplish anything. You can take that confidence with you into any job interview. It demonstrates not only to you, but to your employer, that you can learn new things and deal with the unknown. It is a powerful boost for your job prospects.
It Brings You Closer to a Culture
It is true that for tourists, it is possible to travel without learning any new languages. Hotels and other tourist spots will often go to great lengths to make it easy for international tourists to get by. You can live in your own linguistic bubble for the entirety of a visit. Indeed, there are people who speak no French but live in France, for example. However, this kind of travel and living abroad prevents you from truly understanding a country and experiencing what it is like to live as a native of that country. When you force people to adjust to you, and speak to you in English, for instance, you make it harder to connect with that person at a deeper, more emotional level. You are speaking to them with the language of their head, and not of their heart.
Knowing the language of the people you are traveling among, or living with, makes it easier to get at the heart of what it means to be a member of that community. You can understand their culture, art, customs, and way of life in ways that are just not possible through a mediating language or a translator. If you really want to understand people, speak to them in their language.
You will find that people who understand a local language travel differently to people who only know their language. If you arrive in a country and don’t know the local language, you can’t explore, you stick to your linguistic bubble and what you know. Instead of trying out a local delicacy, you go to McDonalds, for instance. You cannot ask questions, navigate your way through, so you carry your country with you wherever you go. You are in a new country, but you live as if you have never left home. You don’t get to experience the whole of that new country. Just a part, and the part that tastes like home, or the part that is for tourists and tells you little about the people.
In fact, the New York Times reports that multilingual people are more aware of their environment than their monolingual peers.
This is because when switching languages, you have to pay attention to the context that you are in. This goes beyond just knowing that you have to switch from this language to the other. It’s about understanding cultural norms. What may be acceptable in one culture may be rude in another. Navigating through that difference makes you more socially intelligent.
RachelSufournier
May 17th, 2023
Nice article. I totally agree. To improve your understanding of the language and culture of the population of the region where you are going. Studying the language of international communication affects human development. Lyadina must not only convey her thoughts to others but there is also a need to understand mathematical relationships, which the language barrier may not overcome. Mathematics is also a language, but digital, it helps in creating various programs and functions. After all, in life, people constantly see different equations on their way. A resource that will help in solving the question is https://plainmath.net/secondary/statistics-and-probability/high-school-statistics. You will find answers to your questions. And regardless of whether you are a student, a schoolboy, or an adult self-confident person. Development is a forward movement. Good luck to everyone in learning English.