1. Emigration
When you move to a different country or region, learning the local language will help you to communicate and integrate with the local community. Even if many of the locals speak your language, for example if your L1 is English and you move to the Netherlands, it’s still worth your while learning the local language. Doing so will demonstrate your interest in and commitment to the new country.
2. Career or Business Benefits
If your work involves regular contact with speakers of foreign languages, being able to talk to them in their own languages will help you to communicate with them. It may also help you to make sales and to negotiate and secure contracts. Knowledge of foreign languages may also increase your chances of finding a new job, getting a promotion or a transfer overseas, or of going on foreign business trips. Many English-speaking business people don’t bother to learn other languages because they believe that most of the people they do business with in foreign countries can speak English, and if they don’t speak English, interpreters can be used. The lack of foreign language knowledge puts the English speakers at a disadvantage. In meetings for example, the people on the other side can discuss things amongst themselves in their own language without the English speakers understanding, and using interpreters slows everything down. In any socializing after the meetings, the locals will probably feel more comfortable using their own language rather than English.
3. Study or research
You may find that information about subjects you’re interested in is published mainly in a foreign language. Learning that language will give you access to the material and enable you to communicate with fellow students and researchers in the field.
4. Travel
Many English speakers seem to believe that wherever you go on holiday you can get by speaking English, so there’s no point in learning any other languages. If people don’t understand you all you have to do is speak slowly and turn up the volume. You can more or less get away with this, as long as you stick to popular tourist resorts and hotels where you can usually find someone who speaks English. However, if you want to venture beyond such places, to get to know the locals, to read signs, menus, etc, knowing the local language is necessary. A basic ability in a foreign language will help you to ‘get by’, i.e. to order food and drink, find your way around, buy tickets, etc. If you have a more advanced knowledge of the language, you can have real conversations with the people you meet, which can be very interesting and will add a new dimension to your holiday.
5. Studying abroad
If you plan to study at a foreign university, college or school, you’ll need an good knowledge of the local language, unless the course you want to study is taught through the medium of your L1. Your institution will probably provide preparatory courses to improve your language skills and continuing support throughout your main course.
6. Secret communication
If you and some of your relatives, friends or colleagues speak a language that few people understand, you can talk freely in public without fear of anyone eavesdropping, and/or you can keep any written material secret. Speakers of such Native American languages as Navajo, Choctaw and Cheyenne served as radio operators, know as Code Talkers, to keep communications secret during both World Wars. Welsh speakers played a similar role during the Bosnian War
7. Culture
Maybe you’re interested in the literature, poetry, films, TV programs, music or some other aspect of the culture of people who speak a particular language and want to learn their language in order to gain a better understanding of their culture. Most people in the world are multilingual, and everybody could be; no one is rigorously excluded from another’s language community except through lack of time and effort. Different languages protect and nourish the growth of different cultures, where different pathways of human knowledge can be discovered. Perhaps you enjoy the food and/or drink of a particular country or region and make regular trips there, or the recipe books you want to use are only available in a foreign language.
8. Religion
Missionaries and other religious types learn languages in order to spread their message. In fact, missionaries have played a major role in documenting and devising writing systems for many languages. Others learn the language(s) in which the scriptures/holy books of their religion were originally written to gain a better understanding of them. For example, Christians might learn Hebrew, Aramaic and Biblical Greek; Muslims might learn Classical Arabic, and Buddhists might learn Sanskrit.
9. Linguistic interest
Maybe you’re interested in linguistic aspects of a particular language and decide to learn it in order to understand them better.
10. To help understand what other people think
Language influences culture, so learning a language helps you to understand how other people think, and it also helps you to get a general understanding of our world and the many people and cultures that inhabit it.
By: Bindas Bol Institute Mumbai
Archive for December, 2009
Wondering “why learning foreign languages?” – Here’s with 10 Benefits of learning foreign languages that your just cannot ignore
December 30th, 2009English As Second Language For Students
December 24th, 2009Personally, I think there’s no better time for learning a new language than when you’re a student. Thrust in an environment where the main activity is the absorption of knowledge, you’re in as great a place as you can ever be to facilitate acquiring new abilities.
Learning a language, after all, is more than gaining fluency in a new set of grammar and vocabulary. For a good part, it is a way to gain insight into a new culture, allowing you to gain an appreciation for a group of people different than what you’ve been used to. Beyond training you in a new medium of communication, it helps expand your understanding of the world around you.
For some students, language credits are even required to graduate, opening up a great opportunity to train on a language that serves you immediately in the short term. More than completing course requirements, though, language learning offers something different for students who may be surprised to find its innumerable benefits.
Studies have shown, for instance, that students well-versed in at least two languages continually outperform monolinguals in many areas of testing, including SATs and other institutionalized aptitude evaluations. Additionally, with little actual work experience to judge you from when you enter the job market, adeptness in a second language is guaranteed to stand out among your marketable skills.
If you’re a student and are interested in learning a new language, you won’t have a better opportunity than today. Whether you enroll in a course or use a software to learn language, the rewards will definitely be worth it.
The world does not existing entirely in black and white. Every person knows that life is not limited to two or three experiences, and ideas cannot be confined to one or two thoughts. Life has layers, shades and hues that need to be understood and transmitted correctly if communication is to be made possible. Many people think that learning a language such as English in its basic form is sufficient to communicate properly. However, it is important to understand that there are layers to messages, and in order to communicate your true meaning, you cannot be limited to just one or two word options.
Think about it: there is a huge difference between words that may have similar meanings and yet different intensity. The use of the right word will help you convey the message that you want another to understand. For instance, saying that you are angry is not the same as saying that you are furious; one emotion is more intense than the other. It is this intensity that needs to be conveyed using the right words.
You should also know by now that people are not limited to experiencing one or two emotions. This would make life dull and uninteresting. Although we do have the basic feelings of happiness, anger, sadness, fear and others, people actually feel different mixtures of these emotions at one time or another. In order to describe these emotions to other people, more words are needed. Hence, we have terms such as “angst” and “bittersweet.” The range of human experience goes far beyond the basic. Since communication is all about transmitting your ideas in such a way that can be understood by another, using basic language to describe a complex experience does not truly communicate that experience. You will be giving the person a basic idea of what the experience is, but you are not truly communicating the depth of that experience.
The whole point of this article is that people need to go beyond the basics if they really want to communicate properly. Your English should never be limited to the basics, if you want to truly and fully communicate with other people who speak the same language.
By: Laurianne Surchoix
