Top 5 benefits of learning a foreign language

Hello friends,

Here I am back with another post where I will talk about the advantages of learning a new language, specifically a foreign one. I will also talk about how you can learn and where to go from here. This is going to be informative. Please keep reading…

Firstly, let me give you a backdrop – why did I think of this topic and what made me write about it.

As most of you already know from the posts on my blog and the videos on my YouTube Channel, I have recently shifted base to Dharamshala, in Himachal Pradesh.

Dharamshala is a nice place to stay with the mountains all around you and presently it is getting a lot of rains too. So, you can see a lot of clouds all over the place.

When we went to places like McLeodganj and Dharamkot, which are not very far from Dharamshala, we saw that these places are full of people coming from different places. We have met people from Russia, America, Germany, Italy, and Australia and I am sure there are people from other countries as well.

Everyone talks in English here and most of them have learned English as their second language. Few learned only before coming to India.

So, I was thinking that if I have to go to different countries around the world, I must learn a few languages which are local to those places. It would make my life a lot easier on foreign strands.

That is when I installed an app, about which I will talk later in the post. I am on the app for a few days now and I am trying to learn Spanish through it. It is already exciting!



I am sure you will have your own reasons for learning a foreign language too. If not, the following discussion will surely help you.

Let’s now read about the top 5 benefits of learning a foreign language.

1. Essential while traveling

As I gave my example earlier, if you learn a new language, it will help you when you travel to a foreign country.

In many countries, English is not their first language. Most of the things are done in their own language and they do not need to talk in English. Hence, the regular shopkeepers and hoteliers may not be able to communicate in English or even if they do, it will not be the best.

But if you know their local language, you will have a smooth stay there and will never face such difficulties and you will be received with a smile, more often than not.

Now, I know that it is not possible to learn the local language of every country that you go to, but it is very much possible to learn a common language that is spoken in a particular region. Like, if you are going to South America, you can learn Portuguese or probably Latin as well. If you are going to Europe, you may probably choose Spanish or French or German. That can help too.

Learning a foreign language has other benefits too, apart from making your life easier when you travel. Let’s look into a few more.

2. Open up to new people and cultures

Learning a foreign language will definitely help you widen your horizon.

When you learn a new language, for example, the Spanish language, you will try to make friends with Spanish people and probably join Spanish groups on social media and participate in ongoing discussions.

This will instantly give you a bunch of new friends and a gateway to a new culture altogether. You will be doing everything in a whole new different way and that will enhance your networking skills too.

When you join these groups and talk in their language, you will be accepted more readily and you can easily get along with the people and their culture.

3. Essential in this global world

In this era of globalization, you often need to meet people from different regions of the world, with different cultural features and different languages.

It becomes almost essential that you know their language to quickly bridge the gap between two strangers. People using the same language to converse will become friends much faster and much more easily.

If you are from India and your mother tongue is Bengali, or Hindi, or Marathi etc. and you are talking with someone from Europe in English, you must understand that both of you are actually speaking in a language which is a little alien to you.

Just think what will change between the two of you if that fellow starts talking in your language or you start talking in his. It will be no less than a miracle and a joyous moment for both of you! You will stay friends for a longer time.

With globalization and increasing implementation of the concept, such situations will occur more often in your life and hence, learning a foreign language becomes almost essential these days.

4. Boost your career

Even if I do not say this, you probably already know that the knowledge of a foreign can boost your career quite a bit.

In corporate scenarios, we often see the need of someone who can talk to various clients in their own languages. This is when the offices hire language experts.

If you are good with your skills at work and you are looking for an acceleration in the near future, one of the best things to do is to learn a new foreign language. Language experts along with technical expertise are rare in the market and are always in demand.

Learning a foreign language will also offer you a wider range of career options to choose from. If you know a foreign language, you can even think of going abroad and settling down in that foreign country.

Like in Germany, if you want to work in local offices, you must know German. Many Indians applying for permanent residence in Germany learn the language by attending special language classes.

This situation is also the same in some other countries like the Netherlands, Russia, Finland, Sweden, Denmark etc. You get that extra love when you talk in their language when you are there.

Companies these days are in constant search of language experts whom they can send to onsite locations, who can help them with the local knowledge transfer and training sessions.

Trust me, being a foreign language expert is one of the highly paid and most lucrative roles too, in Indian job scenario. I am sure it is almost the same in other countries as well.

5. Become smarter, cleverer and more creative

It is a fact that you become smarter when you can handle multiple languages together. This has been also proven by various scientific studies done around the world.

Learning a foreign language boosts your brain power. It can work better and faster than earlier and you become distinctively smarter.

A few recent types of research have shown that a bilingual person can defer the onset of diseases like Alzheimer’s and dementia by years – by up to 41/2 years on an average more than a monolingual person. So, you stay smarter for a long time too.

It also boosts your creativity and makes you a more creative person. With the enhanced performance of the brain, your creative juices flow more easily and align your senses to create masterpieces.

Knowing and interacting in two or more languages also improves memory drastically. When your memory is improved, you remember more things in a short time and can recall them at the right instances. You will sound much cleverer to your friends and family.

Learning a new language especially, a foreign language enhances your ability to multi-task; hence, you can become an office hero in no time too. Manager’s pride – teammates’ envy!

Studies have proved that learning new languages also enhances the power of decision making. This is one thing which is equally important in a job or a business – wherever you are.

And in the process, your first language also improves. Your brain starts opening up and compares the nuances of the two languages constantly and you discover and rectify the tinier missing information about your first language as well.

Learning a foreign language has also affected the school students, studies tell us. It improves the performance of the students in other academic areas too.

So, if you can, try to learn a new language from as early a stage in life as possible. You or your kids will never regret that decision.

And once you learn one, you can pick up others much easier. If you make it a habit to learn new languages, you will soon have a bunch of foreign languages listed on your CV or portfolio before you could even know.

Cheat sheet

Well, I think that there is no serious study possible without a cheat sheet. Just joking!

But I really want to talk about a few things here, especially for those who are thinking that there is enough time and they can probably start learning tomorrow, or the day after or the month after or even next year. This is for you.

If you are an Indian, you probably already know a couple of languages, apart from English. I know you know English because otherwise, you would not have been reading so far – so, let’s not count that here.

For us, who grew up learning Hindi, a local dialect of a regional language, that regional language itself (Bengali, in my case) and probably English and in some cases, the mother tongue as well are already levelled up, when compared to those from the Europe or Africa or other countries, where people learn only one or two languages at max, including English.

Isn’t it? Yes!

So, we have a better chance to be successful at learning a foreign language. I have already discussed the benefits that this exercise will bring to us. If you agree with what I have written, even partially, then you should start right away!

That is for the cheats that you can keep in mind and feel inspired.

Now, “how to do that” would be your next question. Let’s talk about this.

How to learn a foreign language?

Well, the most common way is to hire a foreign language expert and learn the language from him or her.

Invariably, you can also join language classes. I am sure that such classes exist in various cities in India and if you are not staying in a far-off place where the ghosts are afraid to trade, you should be able to find one out for yourself.

Check Link to the App Review Video below
With the advance of technology and the advent of it on our fingertips, there is another easy way to learn any new language. That is using mobile applications.

We use mobile apps for almost everything these days. Let’s use them to learn a foreign language as well. FluentU and Duolingo are two such apps which will help you in learning a foreign language from the comfort of your home, with just a few taps on your mobile device. Watch my video with the review of the app Duolingo.

However, one big drawback that I can see of using the mobile apps is that there is no classroom or human interaction here. These are completely automated apps which are very well equipped to get you started. Thereafter, you can put in your own efforts to learn the language in a better way.

If you are not very self-motivated and have postponed the plan of joining a gym or yoga class or starting morning-walk, then I would suggest that you look for a real-life and experienced teacher who can teach you the language well. He will keep you motivated with assignments, tests and regular lessons.

So, this is all that I have for this post where we have seen the top 5 benefits of learning a foreign language.

I hope you like this post. If you did, do subscribe to this blog and write a comment to let me know. Let’s connect and learn more.


Cheers!


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You may also want to check out our YouTube Channel, where we post videos with various freelancing tips and tricks, which can definitely boost your freelancing career and business! The Channel name is The Indian Freelancer and can be accessed here: www.YouTube.com/TheIndianFreelancer.

Thanks a lot,
The Indian Freelancer
Let's Learn and Grow Together!

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The Indian Freelancer