The Reasons Why You Should
Learn a Foreign Language

        It’s annoying, or sometimes obnoxious, to do math for most of people. In fact, some people also think learning a language can be as difficult and painful as doing math. However, even if acquiring a second language might be so hard, there are three great reasons for you to start and keep it! These include: improving your brain functions, getting familiar with your own and other cultures, and having advantages in this globalized world.

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        The first reason of acquiring a new language is that it allows you to enhance your memory and improve your brain functions. According to Jeffrey Kluger’s (2013) study published on TIME magazine, learning a second language or multiple languages is one of the best ways to prevent Alzheimer’s disease or other brain related diseases since it makes brain more flexible and be used. Bilingualism also has many cognitive benefits, including improving your powers of concentration, and performing or multitasking better than the monolinguals. Furthermore, Carmen Muños (2006) shows that the earlier you develop bilingualism and your brain's language abilities, the easier for you to learn other languages. Hence, keeping your brain healthy is a great reason why you should be bilingual or multilingual. 

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        The next reason is that when learning the foreign language, you are able to learn a new culture and acquire different points of view of the world. According to Chu,Shi-Ying, a famous Taiwanese writer and consultant of many international non-profit organizations, “How many languages a person can speak, how many kinds of life he or she can live.” That means, a language allows us to understand the world and even affects the way we see and describe the world. For example, there is a word “孝” in Chinese while there is no similar vocabulary in western countries, because people in Chinese culture value family relationships far more than in the West. Another example is Finnish, which has more than forty vocabulary words to describe snow-related concepts in Finland. Like “räntä” means “rain with snow”, and “tuisku” means “a short period snowfall with howling wind”. For this reason, bilingualism could provide you an opportunity to explore a variety of different cultural environments and gain an in-depth understanding of other cultures. In the process of learning a new language, you require switching thinking modes and understanding the culture and living habits of different countries with a different cultural perspective. Thus, you can re-know and re-think your own culture by revealing the differences between native language and the language being learned. In other words, if you want to know more about native and foreign cultures, then starting to learn a foreign language is a nice choice.
    
        Finally, a second language can create more assets for you in this globalized world. On average, people who can speak more than one language get at least 1.5-3.8% higher on salary, which can be found in a study published in The Review of Economics and Statistics in 2005. If you are bilingual or multilingual, then you will own more employment opportunities. No matter facing the market expansion or the increasing need of the global language of English, the language skills of employees are important for businesses. What’s more, in this highly globalized world, being bilingual or multilingual brings much convenience to you, and let you have a more in-depth travel experience. For this reason, when you possess foreign language skills, you will be more competitive and less limited.

   

        To sum up, learn a foreign language can make your brain more flexible, become more familiar to native and foreign cultures, and broaden your horizons in this globalized world. It can even be said that there is no harm in learning a language. So, after knowing the reasons why you should learn a foreign language, why don't you start learning a new language from now on?