Knowing other languages
First, we learn our native language to communicate at home—to listen and speak—and then we learn reading and writing. As we grow, we learn our first language in a better way to express our ideas, thoughts, and emotions and communicate with the external world to meet our necessities.
A stage comes when we come to know that one language is not sufficient, as in the case of moving to other places, and then we decide that we should learn additional languages. Common experiences suggest that learning two, three, or even four languages is easy between 10 and 20 years of age, and it makes a person more informed and experienced than individuals depending on their mother tongue or language learned in childhood.
Before describing the benefits of learning additional languages, it is essential for everyone of us to be comfortable in the first language in terms of reading,writing , speaking, and listening. Many individuals are reluctant to read or write because they have no grip on their first language. They are not interested in expanding their language learning mechanisms simply because they don’t know how to overcome this deficiency. They are not bold enough to make themselves strong on this parameter.
Languages are tools for knowing diverse cultures, a variety of opportunities, deleting misconceptions, identifying similarities, and keeping in alignment with universal laws.
Languages are not less important than other essentials of our lives. Additional languages can be learned even in our 50s and beyond.
The benefits of learning languages in addition to our first language are summarised as follows:
1. By learning a language, we create new structures in our brains.
2. Languages have made humans exceptional creatures on earth.
3. As our brain works to process a new language, our reasoning power and analytical thinking are upgraded.
4. Learning a new language delays cognitive decline in elders.
5. Languages help us connect with the past, including history and geography.
6. Languages give us paths to think about what is possible in the days to come.
7. Languages keep us connected to what’s happening around the world.
8. We explain our thoughts and feelings to large groups of people only when we know more than our first language.
9. Language is learned to communicate properly. And the way we communicate makes an individual distinguishable among the masses.
10. We come closer to people from diverse locations when we write or talk in their first language or a mutual language.
11. Knowing more languages means improved academic and creative outcomes.
12. Language diversity helps to create a more inclusive and integrated society all over the globe.
13. More languages mean more tolerance.
14. Good practises around the world are transferred from one place to another only when we get connected through languages.
15. Learning new languages makes it possible to change the way we think and perceive all stories and legends. We have broader perspectives and know many unknown things that have not yet been explored.
As human generations progress, languages are becoming more effective tools, and all of us are free to become more knowledgeable in the shortest span of our available time.
Start to do what we have not attained so far and keep learning languages as part of our daily activities, apart from being truly comfortable in one language.