Learning a new language is never easy. You’re essentially learning a whole new set of rules. This is especially frustrating the older you are since you’re already well-adjusted to your mother tongue. You might be asking yourself why bother with the frustration of learning a new language when all you need is what you already know to survive? Well, this article will tell you why learning a new language is not only beneficial to you as a skill, but also how it can improve your career opportunities!
Widens Your Career Horizons
Flash it loud and proud on your resume that you are proficient in one or more languages. It is a big bonus to show to recruiters that you are linguistically versatile. Your superiors will be delighted to know that they have someone on their team that has a native-level understanding of a language and a culture. You’ll definitely be placed in projects or activities that require that kind of knowledge.
You can work for a company that provides translation services where your language skills is absolutely needed and highly valued. Translation services is part of many businesses, organizations, and even governments that have an international presence. It’s also one of the many occupations that machines cannot replace. Even if a superbly engineered A.I. software can provide 100% accurate translation, it will not have the cultural understanding and local knowledge a learned human being has.
Helps You Become Internationally Competitive
Having speaking and writing proficiency in another language is a premium skill wherever you go. You can also bet that it is a premium a lot of international companies are willing to hog over as mentioned earlier. Being bilingual or multilingual is a passport that can take you to work in not only domestic entities of international companies but also employment out of the country. You’ll definitely have an edge over your competition whenever you decide to apply abroad.
Not only can you work in translation services as mentioned earlier, but also as foreign language teachers, corporate and government jobs that need proficiency in a foreign language, and many more. For some companies, a global reach is imperative to their existence and survival. From governments, non-profit organizations, to international corporations, a multilingual workforce will always be sought after.
Boosts Your Brain Power
All the countless days of grinding away language books and grammar exercises, along with watching hours of foreign films serves a purpose. It is meant to mold you to think in ways you never thought of. Not only will you enjoy the benefit of speaking another tongue, but you’ll also be gifted with an enhanced thought process – something that will naturally develop the further you immerse yourself in the language.
You’ll see the benefits of the language-learning process trickle down to your other cognitive abilities. Learning an entire dictionary of words and a new set of grammar rules means your memory gets better. Listening to a foreign-language audios while translating it in your head by the millisecond requires improves your perception. The list goes on and on, of which it includes better concentration, creativity, and intelligence.
Makes You More Culturally Empathetic
When learning a language, you’re not just learning the technicalities of it. It is impossible to learn a new language without studying the societies and cultures where it is practiced. You’ll be immersed in source material that showcases specific countries. For example, if you want to learn Spanish, you’ll not only be exposed to standard textbook Spanish, but also Castilian (Spain) Spanish, Venezuelan Spanish, Argentinian Spanish, and all the other dialects in the Hispanosphere.
In fact, many language programs insist on their students to enroll in language immersion study trips. As the common saying goes, experience is the best teacher. You’ll be learning their ways and have a deeper appreciation for foreign cultures and backgrounds. You’ll find yourself interested in foreign foods, clothing, songs, traditional activities, and many more you can think of immersing yourself in.
Transforms You Into An Effective Multi-Tasker
You have to keep in mind of a myriad of factors when forming a sentence in a language you barely know. Depending on some languages, you have to know the proper masculine and feminine versions of nouns, proper verb conjugation, phrasing, grammar, and even certain sayings that make no sense in your mother language but you have to learn it anyway. To make it even more difficult, there are also an additional set of grammar rules in some languages that are specific to that language, but are nonexistent in other languages. You have to take all of these into account and think of it ahead before you even start speaking.
All of this cognitive multitasking that is inherent in language-learning spills over to your other skills. You’ll find yourself switching and performing between diverse tasks more easily and efficiently. Your increased memory, perception, and concentration means you can do jobs right and quickly as you can. Your colleagues and superiors will also appreciate the soft skills you’ve gained during the language-learning process that are highly valued in the workplace.
Final Note
Now a lot of people learn a language simply for the love and enjoyment of learning new things. It would surely please those people to know that gaining the ability to practice a new tongue is just one of the many perks in being bilingual or multilingual. For those who were undecided on whether or not learning a new language is worth the hassle, then I hope this article has given you a better insight as to why the hard work is all worth it.
