Lesser-known benefits of learning a language

In this month’s translation industry updates, we’ll be thinking about some of the benefits of learning another language over and above two of the most usual reasons, which are work and studies. If you’re reading this piece then you’re probably interested in languages too, and we hope that some of the below points will resonate with you, even though they’re not exhaustive. 

In no particular order, here are just some of the lesser-known benefits of learning a language.

Productive use of your free time and personal growth

Learning a language is arguably one of the best things you can do in your spare time. As well as being an important end goal in itself, learning another language can improve your self-esteem by giving you natural milestones to work towards and achievable goals to accomplish. And while learning and speaking in other languages is not necessarily always easy, it can also take you out of your comfort zone and make you feel more confident in taking on new challenges. 

What’s more, the rewards of learning a language often significantly outweigh the time and cost investments involved. The very nature of learning a language means that you don’t necessarily need to set hours aside each day in order to improve, since we often learn best through short but regular bursts of study. This means that even your lunch break or your commute can provide you with some time to learn, particularly with the rise of the internet and app-based learning, which also has the benefit of making language-learning more cost effective than had been the case previously.

An easier time travelling or living abroad

If you’re learning your other language to facilitate travels, or if you’ve just relocated to a place where that language is spoken, building up a good command of the language will greatly improve your overall experience. As well as enabling you to help friends or family members that live with you or visit you, having even a basic understanding of a local language can make it easier for you to get around, help you to build a rapport with people, and keep you more tuned-in to what’s going on in your new environment. Even small things like being able to read signs or to understand parts of conversations around you will help you to feel more at ease and will connect you to your new place, while becoming more confident using another language will also help you to avoid the trap of spending your time exclusively in the company of people who speak your language.

A greater appreciation of the complexity of all languages

Studying even one additional language can help you gain a whole new understanding of how languages differ in both their basic structure and in the way they reflect on the culture that created them. Studying a new language will also help you gain a better understanding of your own language and a better understanding of grammatical concepts in general, particularly if you didn’t study grammar formally when you were at school. Plus, every new language that you learn will help you to learn the next language, since the more languages we have exposure to, the easier it is to build familiarity with other languages. Additionally, the more of the relatively ‘easy’ languages we study, the more we feel emboldened to take on some of the more famously challenging ones.

Making friends and meeting like-minded people 

Learning another language has a huge social aspect. As well as helping you communicate with native speakers of the language, another important side-effect of learning a language is that it generally brings you into contact with nice people, which makes studying a language worthwhile in itself. People who are drawn to other languages tend to be curious and open-minded, so you’re bound to find friends in your fellow students if you attend classes. This can make going to language classes a worthwhile use of your time even if you don’t necessarily have big plans to travel or relocate.

Better appreciation of other cultures

Every language is inextricably tied to the culture that created it, which means that if you learn a language then you’ll also gain a whole new understanding of the literature and other verbal cultural outputs in that country. This is particularly important when not all works of literature are necessarily translated and therefore known to an international audience. An understanding of a foreign language can also boost your current-affairs knowledge, since not all regions get equal coverage in the international news, and not all news is published in the big widely-spoken languages. Plus, watching subtitled films is a lot more interesting when you can understand the dialogue and spot any errors or omissions.

A wide range of cognitive benefits

Many of the cognitive benefits of learning a language are already well known, but in addition to keeping your mind active, learning a language has also been associated with an increased attention span and improved multi-tasking abilities, which stem in part from the fact that when we operate between languages, our mind is naturally working harder to switch between them. According to Verywell Mind the majority of studies conducted in this area have indicated that learning a new language leads people to improve in other academic subjects too, leading to additional gains such as improved working memory and creativity. All of this means that the process of learning other languages will help your mind in a whole host of other ways above and beyond just language knowledge in itself.

Better listening skills and greater empathy

The more we learn of a language, the more of an insight we gain into the lives of the people that speak it. And the more that we as individuals learn languages that are foreign to us, the more we can appreciate the efforts of other people who are having to operate in their non-native languages too. Studying another language can give you a whole new level of appreciation for people who have to speak in a non-native language constantly, for example in large organisations that employ an international language of communication, while understanding the challenges involved with learning a language can also help you to be more accommodating of people from other backgrounds who are working towards learning your language. It’s also important to be able to speak to people whom you would not otherwise have had a language in common with, and that can sometimes be one of the best language-learning benefits of them all.

We hope we’ve convinced you of some of the reasons why learning another language is a worthwhile thing to do, but if you have any other lesser-known side effects of studying a language then we’d love to hear them, so please feel free to drop your thoughts in the comments. Happy language learning, and see you again for next month’s updates! 

Sources

Kendra Cherry | Verywell Mind

Learning a New Language Is Hard, But Your Brain Will Thank You

https://www.verywellmind.com/benefits-of-learning-a-new-language-8695564