Business trips. If you are meeting with important clients who speak a foreign language, you are at a severe disadvantage if you cannot speak their tongue. First, there is the awkwardness of having to use interpreters. Then there is a further disadvantage in that you won't able to understand a lot of the conversion that isn't directed at you and your interpreter. This leaves you clueless as to many of the issues on their minds. Informal personal interactions can be just as important as formal meetings. Not being able to relate to them as people places you at a severe disadvantage.
New ways of thinking. Did you know that certain phrases in other languages do not have an exact translation in English? This seems strange at first but shouldn't come as a surprise since different languages have their origins in different cultures which of course developed along different paths. By immersing yourself into the language and the culture of another country you are quite literally expanding your conceptual horizons.
Brain health. The phrase "use it or lose it" especially applies to our mental functioning as we age. Once we become adults and have settled into our lives, we fall into familiar routines and do tasks at home and at our jobs that don't give our brains much of a workout. Exercising a skill that you already have is just a form of following routines and does not tax the brain. There is evidence that a brain that coasts along in life is more prone to dementia. Acquiring a new skill or learning something completely new exercises the brain and can put off the onset of dementia. Learning a new language is a perfect way to do this.
Better understanding of your own language. You can function in life just fine without understanding the origins of your own language or the reasons for it's particular quirks and why it's grammar is structured the way that it is. But then again the same is true for so many other things that can enhance your life. You don't need to appreciate art or understand how the universe came to be either. Studying other languages can show you how the words and grammar of your own language evolved. This knowledge makes you a more interesting person.
Interacting with people in your own country. The United States is becoming a bilingual country with Spanish as its second language. If you only speak English then there is a sizable chunk of the population with whom you cannot communicate. This also means that more and more television and radio stations will become "off limits" to you. This phenomenon is already happening in many parts of the country where a good fifty percent of your radio dial is filled with Spanish radio stations.
The Internet. Forty three percent of the web sites on the Internet are non English. Visiting these sites and reading the blogs and comments will give you great insight into the culture of these people. If you want to truly understand the rest of the world, you will have to break free of the journalistic biases and filters of your usual news sources and read what the rest of the world thinks in their own words. This is not possible if you are limited to English.
New ways of thinking. Did you know that certain phrases in other languages do not have an exact translation in English? This seems strange at first but shouldn't come as a surprise since different languages have their origins in different cultures which of course developed along different paths. By immersing yourself into the language and the culture of another country you are quite literally expanding your conceptual horizons.
Brain health. The phrase "use it or lose it" especially applies to our mental functioning as we age. Once we become adults and have settled into our lives, we fall into familiar routines and do tasks at home and at our jobs that don't give our brains much of a workout. Exercising a skill that you already have is just a form of following routines and does not tax the brain. There is evidence that a brain that coasts along in life is more prone to dementia. Acquiring a new skill or learning something completely new exercises the brain and can put off the onset of dementia. Learning a new language is a perfect way to do this.
Better understanding of your own language. You can function in life just fine without understanding the origins of your own language or the reasons for it's particular quirks and why it's grammar is structured the way that it is. But then again the same is true for so many other things that can enhance your life. You don't need to appreciate art or understand how the universe came to be either. Studying other languages can show you how the words and grammar of your own language evolved. This knowledge makes you a more interesting person.
Interacting with people in your own country. The United States is becoming a bilingual country with Spanish as its second language. If you only speak English then there is a sizable chunk of the population with whom you cannot communicate. This also means that more and more television and radio stations will become "off limits" to you. This phenomenon is already happening in many parts of the country where a good fifty percent of your radio dial is filled with Spanish radio stations.
The Internet. Forty three percent of the web sites on the Internet are non English. Visiting these sites and reading the blogs and comments will give you great insight into the culture of these people. If you want to truly understand the rest of the world, you will have to break free of the journalistic biases and filters of your usual news sources and read what the rest of the world thinks in their own words. This is not possible if you are limited to English.
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If you are not sure how to go about learning a second language, read this review of the best language learning programs. A software tutor may work for you.
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