“A man who is ignorant of foreign languages is also ignorant of his own language.” ― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
7 Reasons Why You Should Learn a Language in 2024
There always comes a time when we just want to learn something new or find a new hobby. And the two most common options that we find are to learn a new language or to play a musical instrument.
While both of them are great options, in this post you’ll find the top 7 advantages of learning a second language.
Learning a new language will open the door for a whole new world for you.
And in this new world you will…
1. Meet new people and make new friends
On the path of learning a new language, you will meet many new people who are also in the same boat as you. You will become friends with many of them, and may find few best friends for life as well.
There are so much to gain and almost nothing to lose (except boredom) by making new friends. It expands your social circles and instantly opens up all sorts of possibilities to you.
How to Choose the Best Foreign Language to Learn
2. Learn more about other cultures
When you learn about different cultures you will start to open your mind to different ideas & values.
Today our world has become a global village, with multicultural environment in most of the countries. The more you know about different cultures, the better you can understand and relate to other people.
3. Become more patient and determined
Learning a language needs a lot of patience and determination. So, this entire process of learning will make you very patient and you will be able to think more clearly.
It also improves your ability to tolerate things. Suppose you get stuck in a queue at the airport, instead of being impatient, you can listen to a podcast on your phone.
4. Get better at multi-tasking
Multitasking can be very frustrating and stressful for those who are not used to it. If you speak more than one language, you can easily switch between them depending on who you are talking to.
Bilingual people think about different things in different languages. Many researches has shown that bilingual people are great at multitasking.
5. Get better career opportunity
It will set you apart from your peers who are monolingual. It’s a known fact that it takes a lot of efforts and determination to learn a second language.
You can impress your employer by letting them know that you are bilingual or a polyglot. They will know that how hardworking and determined you could be with the given work.
Related: 7 Reasons Why Learning a New Language Won’t Get You a Job
6. Learn other languages faster
Once you have learned one language, it becomes so much easier to learn other languages. If you are a native English speaker and you have just learned Spanish, you can learn languages like Italian, French, Portuguese faster.
English – I am happy.
Spanish – Yo estoy feliz.
Portuguese – Eu estou feliz.
Italian – Sono felice.
French – Je suis content.
You can see from the sentences above that the more languages you know, the easier it becomes to learn the next.
7. Improve your attention span
Language learning process will improve your attention span and boost your problem-solving skills. It will also sharpen your brain as you will use it more often to switch between your native and target language.
(11 Bonus reasons) Learning a new language will:
- Improve your memory
- Make your travels more exciting
- Boost your creativity
- Improve your self confidence
- Improve your communication skills
- Improve your listening skills
- Improves decision-making skills
- Make you think faster
- Increase your general vocabulary
- Help you get more ideas
- Help you learn anything faster and remember for long
20 More reasons to learn a new language:
- To improve your CV
- To learn how to make new sounds
- To watch Netflix TV shows from other countries
- To be more open and tolerant
- To always have something new to share
- To become a better version of yourself
- To say yes to more adventures
- To learn how to greet people in tons of different ways
- To talk to your pets in another language
- To feel like you’re traveling in time
- To make foreigners feel welcome in your country
- To read street signs in other countries
- To read poems in their original language
- To have people tell you that you have a cute accent
- To become an inspiration for other language learners
- To stand out from the crowd
- To translate crazy phrases on Duolingo
- Because you won’t regret it
- Because there’s no reason not to learn languages
- Because you don’t actually need a reason
Learning a new language makes your whole life more interesting. If you’re bored with doing the same thing everyday and if you’re looking for a change, start learning a new language.
Let’s make the year 2024 more productive by learning at least one new language.