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Benvenuti, Bienvenue, Croeso and Welcome.
Hi, I’m Juliet. Join me on my language learning journey and discover my thoughts on different aspects of language learning with the A Language Learning Tale Podcast. Today, the subject is …
10 Reasons to Learn a Foreign Language
If you’re wondering why on Earth you should bother to learn a language in 2024, here are 10 reasons to get you started.
Let’s start with one of the best reasons. You will eventually be able to talk to someone who doesn’t know English. Yes, it may sometimes seem like everyone on the planet speaks English, but that is far from the truth. There are plenty of people who don’t understand a word of it. And even it if they do speak English, they may not speak it well, or have the resources to be able to get better at it. What better than to be able to talk to them in their native language?
Okay, the second reason is that it could improve your job prospects. There are always companies looking for people to speak to clients, or branch offices in another country, in their native language. And, being able to speak another language, having another skill under your belt, might well mean you can command a higher salary. Who doesn’t want that?
For number three, let’s think about what learning can do for us, in general. Anything that taxes our brains, helps to keep our brains healthy. If you’re young, you might not think that this is such an important reason, but for those of us who are older, keeping your brain active has genuine medical benefits. And learning a language can be very taxing, because there’s so much to learn, to remember and construct. Much better than those apps that appear in all the ads when you’re older!
Right, four, well, this had to come up sooner or later. You can impress the locals when you go on holiday. For this, it’ll be better if you know more than a handful of words, so you can have a proper conversation, so starting at the beginning of the New Year for a holiday in the summer, gives you plenty of time to get to rudimentary conversational level, in many languages.
Number 5 is linked to number 4. How would you like to go and live in another country for a longer period of time? Well, you’re better placed to do that if you can speak the language. You might need more than those six months to be proficient, though, so the earlier you start, the better. Is tomorrow okay for you?
The sixth reason? You’ll be able to consume various media in the language, thus expanding your knowledge of the language to much greater levels. It doesn’t matter what kind of media you prefer. Books, music, television, film - it’s all up for grabs without those pesky subtitles. Okay, the subtitles can be useful, but you know what I mean.
Of course, after consuming all that media, at number 7 we can add understanding the culture of a country much better. Hearing, or reading, people talk about their lives in a country in their native language gives much more insight than reading something that’s been translated or subtitled, because you’ll hear all the subtleties that get missed when things are converted from one language to another.
And our eighth reason comes from several of the previous things in our list. We can make friends in the country, either in person, or through social media. People who we might never have known existed before.
And in at number 9, learning a language is fun. That’s it. No more explanation needed.
Number 10?. Well, if you listened to last week’s podcast, number 10 just has to be, because we can’t let AI win. It’s unlikely anyone from the future is going to be able to travel back and help us out!
That’s all for today. Don’t forget to join me again next time, for more tips, tricks and tales and in the meantime, check out the A Language Learning Tale YouTube channel for additional, non-podcast content.
Ciao, salut, hwyl and bye for now.