Benefits Of Learning Foreign Languages
In today’s liberalized economic conditions and the globalized world, the movement of professionals to several countries is pretty high. For example, several lakhs of Indian software professionals are located in many countries. These professionals are transferable to several countries wherever the project requires them to work. With such high mobility, and given that many native countries’ populations prefer to speak in their mother tongue (e.g., Germany, French, Spain ), coupled with their less fluency in English, it is important to know the foreign language for effective communication understanding their culture. Further, learning a foreign language enhances creativity, develops friendships, enriches travel experience, widens horizons, and offers career growth opportunities.
Provides a World View: Learning a foreign language and engaging with literary works or conversing with a broader audience opens up the mind to new thoughts. This gives a wider perspective and understanding, quickly assimilating and appreciating the practices and cultures of people in other nations. It helps you become more liberal and listen to a new point of view. In addition, knowing the language becomes valuable when working with teams across different nations.
Better Travel Experiences: Learning and knowing a foreign language will open a world of travel opportunities. Conversing in the local native language while travelling welcomes you into their world more quickly than speaking in English (if it’s a foreign language). For example, learning French will help you as a tourist to read and navigate around countries like France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Canada, Cameroon, etc. In addition, conversing and making friendships with people comes with ease.
Boosts Brain Power: A foreign language comes with grammar, syntax, rules of sentence construction, lexis, pattern and structure. Thus, learning enhances the cognitive power to form new connections and structures and thus improve creativity. As a result, critical thinking skills are developed while learning a new language and improve skills professionally. Further such people can multitask have better creativity and flexibility.
Better Employment Opportunities: India itself is a country of dozens of languages. The constitution has enshrined 13 languages as official. Being multilingual opens up various career opportunities as many employers are looking for employees who can bridge the gap between the company and workers from multiple geographical regions. Employers with multi-country businesses also would prefer to employ a person knowing various languages. They are likely to have better relationships with better cultural sensitivity and thus perform better. For seeking opportunities outside India, an ability to read, write &speak another language provides you with higher chances of employment.
Helps You Cultivate a New Hobby: Learning a new language can be a rewarding experience. Whether audio or visual, learning a new language can be fun, depending on your learning style. Several language teaching apps and games provide great knowledge for those who prefer to learn visually. There are podcasts for those who prefer audio, and for those who prefer both, there are several videos on social media and movies that can be a great learning method.
You gain perspective about your language and culture as you try to learn another language. It sheds light on aspects of your own culture, and you may find both positives and negatives about your own culture.
