Why you should learn a foreign language

 Let me start by giving you a few pretty bad reasons for learning a language.

1) To get return on investment / to get rich

If you think about the length of time it takes to learn a language up to a functional business level with good comprehension of what people are saying to and calculate the time or cost to get to that level compared to the extra salary or money that you could get from it, then most of the time you’ll find the ROI of learning a foreign language is quite low. Knowing another language may bring benefits or opportunities, but it might take many years to get any real financial benefits. If you’re only thinking about long term business, it’s far more convenient to hire an interpreter for important situations.

2）Just to pass a test 

Yes, you might need a good TOEFL or IELTS score to get into a university, but this is a pretty short term benefit of learning a language. You still need to be able to benefit from the course when you get to the country, be able to research in the language and be able to participate in discussions and social events. Otherwise, just having the piece of paper is of pretty limited use.

I’ve found that people choose to learn languages for a lot of reasons: to boost their abilities at work, to study abroad, to gain more from travel experiences, to speak to a partner or family member or even just out of pure interest in some aspect of culture like French literature or Japanese anime, but here are some of the more powerful and more subtle things you can get from learning a language.

1）You can broaden your field of vision and get access to information you wouldn’t have access to otherwise

No matter where you live, the amount of information you have access to is severely limited, and it is often restricted by your culture or the place you live in – and I’m not just talking about the obvious places where this happens, if you get what I mean. In my mind, it’s really important to try to get different perspectives onthings, and sometimes these perspectives can come from different countries or cultures or ‘outside views’.

You have to hear about something from as manysources as possible to really get an idea of the actual situation, otherwise you may only be getting one side of the story. For example, if I wanted to know about British history and find out something new, it would be pretty interesting to read what the French have to say about it. Or if I wanted to know about market conditions in China, wouldn’t it be more informative to read about that market in Chinese, right from the country itself.

2) To get access to great literature, films, music and culture in the language itself

Sure, quite a few things are translated, but a lot of information simply may not be available in your native language, let alone a lot of great books, films, music and so on. Learning a new language opens up the doors to a huge range of works written in that language. And even if you can read them in your native language, it might not ‘feel’ the same.

3）To meet and interact with people you wouldn’t otherwise be able to interact with 

There are many people in this world who don’t speak English at all, or your native language. I have been able to talk to many people though speaking foreign languages that I would not have been able to speak to otherwise, and I’ve been exposed to different opinions, because many of these people have been less internationalized and are certainly less vocal internationally. I’ve been able to make friends, get jobs, create business and find extra opportunities that simply wouldn’t have been open to me if I didn’t speak another language.

4）To challenge yourself and keep your mind sharp

Learning a foreign language or two is a great way to keep your mind sharp. The act of translating or thinking in a foreign language will keep parts of your brain active and itcan be pretty fun to challenge yourself. You’ll always have more to learn, but that’s part of the fun. The sense of achievement when you are able to understand native speakers and you reach that epiphany point when you feel you can express yourself freely in a language is hard to express.

5）It will allow you to express yourself in more ways 

Even if learning a foreign language doesn’t unlock another side of your personality, it will at least giveyou another way or greater flexibility in expressing yourself. And when you are around somebody who speaks both or all the languages you do, this magic will come alive, and you will suddenly find yourself throwing foreign words into your speech and expressing yourself in several different languages at the same time. That’s where the beauty lies.

6） To become a person with greater empathy

When you learn to speak a foreign language as an adult you have to train your brain to handle completely different ways of expressing things, different words, grammar and expressions. There may be things that you have to say completely differently to your native language, new concepts that don’t exist in your native language and you will be exposed to new ideas and ways of thinking about things that you might not have had contact with before. 

In my opinion, learning a foreign language to a high level really helps you understand other cultures, think inother people’s shoes and to have more empathy. During the process you may even becomemore open to new ideas or differing opinions, which can only be a good thing.

Being able to speak multiple languages doesn’t make you better than other people, but it doesgive you extra access to a whole range of things in that language or culture. It’s like, in my mind, being a member of a special club, only that anybody can be a member as long as you have the patience, the curiosity and the ambition, to want to learn that language. In many ways, it’s a special privilege that is available to anybody.

You will challenge yourself, keep your mind nimble, boost your powers of self-expression, learn to think in other people’s shoes, understand another culture and way of thinking, get access to incredible literature, movies and art, meet new people, create new opportunities, and most importantly you can have a lot of fun while you’re doing it!

And you could geta lot more than you can quantify in a monetary value.

Learning a language takes time, and there’s always more to learn. You can’t just do it for a year thenstop, or take a test then give up. You have to live it, love it and breathe itevery day. But if you keep going, you’ll be surprised how quickly you can progress. So do it. Start learning a language now, then keep it up and make it a part of your life even if you can only spend 15 minutes a day on it. I’m pretty sure you won’t regret it!