Why Learn Another Language?

This post comes from Kanta Naik, District Principals, English Language Learners Department.
~ Kevin Godden

Now, more than ever, knowing other languages is proving not only to be beneficial but, indeed, it is almost a prerequisite to success in our global realm. Consider the impact in just the last few decades of the internet and Google and how much we now know about the outside world. Then, think of Google Translate and how that opens doors for almost anyone to access all the information in their own lingua franca! So if we have that capacity to get all the information we want at the press of a key, why should we learn another language?

Well, the research shows, according to Anne Merrit that you actually become smarter. That learning another language improves your brain by challenging it to recognize new systems, negotiate meaning, problem solve and communicate. You also learn how to multi-task between systems. Studies done on monolingual adults lead scientists to think that knowing more than one language can slow down the onset of Alzheimer’s and dementia by a difference of about four years for those who spoke one language versus those who spoke more than one. Numerous studies show that your memory improves by learning another language as you retain some information, better. A study from the University of Chicago suggests that bilinguals tend to make more rational decisions and, overall, knowing additional languages improves your decision making skills. That is somewhat obvious, it seems, because when you learn the complexities and nuances of each language, you are more equipped to analyze and interpret different things.

However, all of the cognitive or socio-cultural aspects and benefits aside, the basic truth is that it’s mostly about economics and politics in our competitive world. Knowledge is power and language is the currency. Ludwig Wittgenstein says it best: “Die Grenzen meiner Sprache bedeuten die Grenzen meiner Welt” (“The limits of my language determine the limits of my world”). So, in today’s world of global citizenship, global connection and communication, global resources or lack thereof, global opportunities and global peace we simply, through language, need to understand each other, better!
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