Why Studying Foreign Languages is Valuable and Important
A week or so ago I had a conversation with a new friend who is Puerto Rican. The conversation morphed, as they always do, and we started talking about the Spanish language. She said: tú hablas español? and I said: sí, un poco. I have studied Spanish for 2 years and we began talking about languages and talking in Spanish too. She said she has started learning several languages just by watching TV shows and listening to music in that language.
I think knowing two languages (or more) is one of the coolest things. You are able to communicate and learn from and read books by so many more people. One of the things my friend said is once you know more than one language you are at an advantage to most of the world who only know one. And once you know two, it's easier to learn others.
There is so much more to learning a language than just knowing how to speak and write it. It invites awareness of another person's culture and life into yours, it creates more positive attitudes, and fewer prejudices to people who are different.
Learning a new language really does give you a hand up in the world! Here are a few more reasons why, although there are more than this.
1. It gives you an edge up in career choices, the more people you can communicate with, the more options and opportunities there are out there.
2. Knowing multiple foreign languages is proven to enhance one's listening skills and memory as well as strengthen their own language.
As I said, I have taken two years of Spanish classes but I am not taking a class this year. I still want to keep up what I learned and so here are some things I plan on doing this year.
- Reading books in English first and then in Spanish. I plan on reading The Little Prince soon.
- Listening to music in Spanish. Julieta Venegas is one of my favorites, I love Limon y Sal, Me Voy, and Bueno o Mal by her.
- Watching familiar TV shows and movies in Spanish. I am hoping to watch Friends and Megamind in Spanish soon.
- Finally, listening to the Spanish Duolingo podcasts in Spanish. I think the podcasts are extremely helpful for learning a new language, they speak slowly and the "host" explains the story in English just in case you miss anything.
I think learning a new language can also be really fun, I love exploring with different sounds from different languages, and I think it is so interesting to see how different sentences are structured in different languages too.
If you want to read more reasons to study a foreign language you can look here. There are so many reasons!
Thank you for reading.
Do you know any languages, and if so, which one(s)? If you don't, what would you like to learn?
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