Necessity of Learning a Second Language
Physiological studies have found that people who are bilingual have a more developed cognitive process compared to those who only speak one language, this offers many mental health benefits including being more perceptive and having a greater memory. Even though learning a second language can consume large amounts of time and may not always have constant use, everyone should learn a second language because doing so can help with applying for a job and maybe even a leadership position in the future and learning a second language also allows people of all ages to live more culturally aware.
Learning a second language like Spanish or French for example can have multiple benefits especially when traveling. I remember taking a cruise two years ago to Cozumel Mexico and when we docked in the harbor I can remember immediately hearing various native speakers who spoke Spanish, and some of course who spoke English. I always thought it would provide a fun experience to go somewhere that mainly speaks natively in a foreign language and actually hold a conversation with other people from across the world. I felt like that would be a once and a lifetime opportunity given that I had just taken an entry level Spanish class at my school that same year.
When traveling it is important to know someone who knows about the native language of wherever you plan to visit or carry some sort of reference guide to help with communication means. That way when you want to buy something from that area or try some new food you are able to do so without ordering or buying the wrong item and possibly offending the natives of the area you happen to visit.
When applying for a job the interviewer is going to look at various assets that will positively affect the business and one of the various virtues they search for is if you are bilingual or have any experience dealing with a second language. In their eyes they see this as a huge attraction to their establishment because they will have the capabilities to provide a market not just to the people nearby but internationally as well and if you’re being compared to another candidate for the same job by the interviewer. The assessor will see that paying someone who can provide more for the company without having to necessarily pay more for the knowledge the occupant holds will result in a better outcome overall and this will benefit the company greatly.
It’s not all about the money though, it’s a lot harder to make money if you aren’t in good physical and mental condition. Additionally, being bilingual has various long term health benefits including being more resistant to the onset of dementia and other symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease according to Forbes in conjunction with the research led by neuropsychologist Tamar Gollan of the University of California, San Diego. The higher the degree of bilingualism, the later the age of onset. There also have been accounts of lower stress levels and a faster stroke recovery. It doesn’t just stop there, knowing a second language can improve cultural awareness and allow for the easier understanding of the interworking’s each culture brings with it. Something we might do every day may transpire as disrespectful to another culture, this doesn’t exactly mean if you can completely speak a second language then you know everything there is to know about the said culture, but it sure makes it easier to communicate.
A few class periods ago my US history teacher was telling us a story about how he was teaching some of his German students and while giving the lecture he put his hands in his pockets without even knowing, cause he wasn’t aware of the unceremonious nature of the act he had just been caught doing and all the German students gasped and then he realized after the fact, that they weren’t accustomed to the informal nature of an American History teacher from the United States who primarily speaks English.
Continuing on, whilst learning a foreign language you are actually improving your knowledge of your native language and you actually start catching the mistakes as you speak and you begin to fix them. Learning a second language also strengthens your vocabulary, this is noted as to why people who are fluent in two languages are generally smarter than people who only know one language. As noted in the article Why Bilinguals Are Smarter by Yudhijit Bhattacharjee of the New York Times, Talks about the “Collective evidence from a number of such studies suggests that at a young age if kids learn a foreign language earlier on it strengthens the brains “executive function” a command system that directs the attention processes that we use for planning, solving problems and performing various other mentally demanding tasks.” This allows your kids to stand a step above the average kids as early as grade school and maybe a step above a fellow future employee candidate later on in life.
Learning a second language can very well serve as a daunting task due to how much time you have to devote to the memorization and how much review there is to understand what you’ve previously learned among the other things we as humans have going on in our lives but with various apps and services like “Duolingo” and “Rosetta Stone” it actually isn’t as bad as some might think to review and strengthen those skills. I highly suggest learning a second language such as Spanish, French, etc. As a result, it really opens you up to the world around and makes you a little more culturally diverse and aware of the other parts of the world that you either may not have known existed or at least may not have known how to properly communicate with beforehand, it is a simple way to help you live a longer life but not just a longer life a more fulfilling one at that whether it subsist early on in adolescent years or maybe applying for the specific job you’ve been striving for in your adult years all the way to sitting in a nursing home gradually passing time and aging slower than the average person because you took the time to learn a second language.