Mostly thanks to going to university for four years, I've met and interacted with quite a significant number of people in my
life. Of all those that I've met, I think I could name six who'd started to learn a second language. Of those six, I believe only two of them
still try to practice their additional language(s), with the other
four deciding to give up. Either everyone I've met is keeping their language
learning a big secret, or it just isn’t as popular a hobby that people do nowadays.
Despite starting to learn Spanish in June 2019, my
learning really took off at the start of the first lockdown in England,
starting in March 2020. This was a time when the majority of people who were on
furlough were given a huge amount of free time, which was a perfect
opportunity to continue or start various hobbies. From the many virtual conversations
with friends that I had during this time (mostly starting with “How is lockdown
treating you?”), I noticed that the majority of hobbies that people were doing
were exercise, playing instruments, watching Netflix, and baking. There wasn’t a
lot of language learning.
It seems as though when someone is bored, starting to
learn a new language will be very low on their list of ideas. I think it's a skill that is overlooked in favour of other things that are perhaps easier
or less time consuming. It could also be attributed to myths surrounding
language learning that I’ve heard a lot about (i.e. “I’m too old to learn
another language”, “Everyone speaks English, so I don’t need to learn another
language”), all of which are wrong in my opinion.
There are so many benefits to learning a second language,
which I'm going to outline in this post.
Being able to connect with others:
Thanks to language learning, I now have friends that, beforehand, I’d never have met or been able to communicate with. Depending on
your native language, it's true that there will be others who also speak that
language. However, there will also be A LOT of people who don’t speak it. As a
result, these people are forever closed off from you, with no easy means of
communication between you.
In 2018, I went to Hungary with a few friends and ended
up at a festival (Sziget Festival – I had a great time if anybody needs a
recommendation for things to do in Hungary!). At one point, my phone fell out
of my pocket without me realising. A few seconds later, a girl tapped me on the
shoulder and gave it back to me. This was such a good gesture on her part, and
after thanking her and attempting to strike up a friendly conversation
(as I was doing with basically everybody I met at this festival), I realised that
she had a very low level of English. As I didn’t know any Hungarian,
this was the end of our chat. If she had spoken better English or I
had spoken Hungarian, who knows who this girl could've been to me now? A
friend? A best friend? A boss? A girlfriend? The fact that we couldn’t
communicate with each other means she is now nothing but a memory of a kind
stranger.
This same story can apply to all of us. We have absolutely no idea what will happen in our lives or who we will meet, but by learning languages, you give yourself a better chance of meeting and connecting with more people. You could meet people that you end up knowing for your entire life, and you could look back and think “If I'd never learnt that language, I’d never have met this person”. Connecting and socialising with people may not be for everyone, which is absolutely fine. But, for me personally, I absolutely love meeting and getting to know people from all walks of life. I met a lot of people during university who didn’t speak English as a native language. However, due to the fact that they had learnt it at some point in their lives, I was able to communicate with them and form friendships that I'll remember for a long time.
More career opportunities:
Imagine you were an employer who was interviewing two candidates for a position at your company. By the end of the interview, you've realised that they are both fabulous. You really can't choose between them because they both have a lot of relevant experience, determination, and everything else that you're looking for. You're wondering whether you should just flip a coin between the two when you decide to look at their CVs one more time. Candidate A speaks only English, whereas Candidate B speaks English, Spanish, German, and Mandarin. Does this help you make your decision?
We live in a world where there are so many professional connections between countries. Lots of companies trade internationally, and as a result, relationships are formed between these companies and their employees. There's an extraordinarily high chance that someone from a company will, at some point, have to communicate with someone who doesn’t share their native language. As a result, knowing another language is going to make you look very good. It also provides you with the opportunity to work abroad, as you'll be able to integrate into that new country far more easily if you speak that language. I have a Spanish friend who I met at university who came to England to study and now has a job in France. His knowledge of English and French allowed him to do this, and now he has the coolest job in the world (ocean scientist).
Improved brain function:
While I don’t have a lot of personal evidence
to support this (although I have noticed my memory improving…), there's been
a lot of research on how learning languages can improve the function of the
brain. This includes: improved memory, improved problem solving, critical
thinking, better understanding of the languages you already speak, improved
ability to multitask, improved concentration, and reduced ageing of the brain.
I like to think of it in a ‘use it or you lose it’ way. I imagine that the more we exercise and train our brain, the healthier it'll be. Learning a new language will stimulate the brain on a daily basis. It has become so accustomed to the native language we speak (the vocabulary, the grammatical structures) that it'll take a lot of effort to adapt to a new language. This'll also depend on how different your target language is from the languages you already know. For example, a Spanish speaker who is learning Italian (which is another romance language) will obviously have to adapt to a new language, but it won't take as much brain power as having to adapt to learning Mandarin (an entirely different level of difficulty compared to Italian for this person). This will constantly stimulate the brain, and as a result, you may end up with a far healthier organ than before!
More confidence travelling and a higher appreciation of
culture:
Travelling can be daunting, especially if you speak a
language that isn’t widely spoken. Knowing another language can put your mind a bit more at ease when travelling, as you know there will be
an increased chance of being able to find what you're looking for and interact with people if you need to. If not, you're heavily relying on them being able to speak
your language, or you risk becoming isolated while you are there. It also
relates to the point of connecting with people; imagine the number of people
you meet if you travel from hostel to hostel and use their languages! This
ability to travel confidently goes hand in hand with opening us up to
the varied cultures of different countries. These cultures could be
very different from the ones you are used to. Being able to communicate in their
language will give you an even better look into their way of thinking and
living. I believe that when people become too used to their own culture and way of life, other cultures can seem odd or scary to them. However,
you have to remember that they may think the same about your culture! We
live in a world of such great variety, and it’s important to appreciate and
respect them all.
Summary:
Learning a language is a rollercoaster and requires
a lot of commitment and patience, but it's increasingly clear how many
positives there are on the other side. Whether you learn a language to make new
friends, go travelling, improve your brain, or for potential career
opportunities, it's important to just get started! Once you start, you may
never look back.
I’ve also personally noticed that it makes learning additional languages easier, so who knows how many doors in life you'll be able to unlock with your new languages?
Key vocabulary:
Interacted – communicate or be involved with
Furlough – temporary leave from employment due to needs
of the company which may be related to overall society (in the example in the text, the government ordering people to stay at home)
Strike up – phrasal verb meaning to
start, mostly used when referring to a conversation. It shouldn’t be used as a
substitute for the verb “to start” in most cases, for example “I need to start
this assignment”, not “I need to strike up this assignment”
CVs – stands for curriculum vitae, a short written
summary of a person’s career, qualifications and education. Used when applying
for a job
Daunting - seems difficult and intimidating
Hand in hand – goes together
Rollercoaster – a ride in a theme park e.g. "Let’s go on
that rollercoaster!" However, in English it can also be used in an informal way
to suggest a situation or experience was pretty crazy with a lot of emotions
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