By Tresha Sivanesanathan
Are you passionate about business? Does earning extra money in the future sound like a great option for you? ChangemakerZ recommends that you invest in your education by learning multiple languages. Many career pathways such as journalism, tourism and travel services, federal agencies, and government occupations require the knowledge of other languages like French, Mandarin, German, and Spanish. Learning multiple languages helps you to gain higher salary wages that can increase up to a $67,000 compared to a regular job. If that’s not enough to persuade you, here are the top five benefits of learning a language.
Improves Memory
To many bilingual individuals, learning a new language involves memorization and practice. Memorizing different tense forms and learning new words and phrases can be overwhelming, but the result is significant. Increased improvement in memory will help students be more efficient when studying for other subjects. Not to mention, you won’t be forgetting where you left your keys or that pesky phone anytime soon!
Healthier Brain
Now, this may sound astounding, but scientists have shown that learning a new language can help increase an individual’s cognitive abilities and perceptual sensitivity. Studies have even shown that a multilingual individual’s brain size is significantly larger than a person that does not learn a language. Talk about becoming the next Einstein! Other scientific studies have also proven that language learners can delay certain diseases such as Dementia and Alzheimer’s to up to five years compared to non-language learners.
Boosts Confidence Level
Understandably, learning a language will require that you learn how to speak the language fluently. Though are you aware that there are other additional benefits of speaking a new language? When meeting new people, you can immediately make connections by sharing a language. Many multilingual speakers have penpals from across the world. Many introverted learners have even become more confident at speaking after learning a new skill and become masters at conversation. This would be an opportunity to expand your reach gain access to new opportunities.
Sparks Creativity
As you begin to learn a new language, you become more engaged and aware of other cultures and traditions. These connections are an inspiration to new experiences that cannot be experienced if someone were to only be immersed in their native culture. Many multilingual speakers are problem solvers and thinkers in their own way as from their new experiences. They can come up with solutions and ideas quicker to make multilingual speakers more innovative.
Easier to Learn Other Languages
You may be aware of this, but as you progressively learn new languages, it becomes easier. Multilingual speakers can see the pattern in different languages quickly allowing for them to pick up new languages more easily. For a multilingual learner, it would take 17 months to learn Spanish. While for a bilingual student, it may take up to 17 years before they are fluent. Why does this happen? It is because you are training the brain continuously. As you start learning new languages, the brain becomes stronger until eventually, you can easily grasp the skill.
