Learning a language today is almost a must. Acquiring such a skill brings about a number of benefits that go from getting a new, better job to participating in enriching cultural exchange with people from different parts of the world. But were you aware of the fact that language learning also fosters your wellbeing? For example, studying to become fluent in a given language will improve your cognitive development and help you become more creative in other fields. Wondering what other benefits language learning brings about? Keep on reading and discover how to keep your mind healthy while acquiring this in-demand skill.
Learning a New Language Increases Your Cognitive Development
Everybody knows that learning a language is a long-term investment. Achieving native-like fluency takes a very long time (from 5 to 15 years, depending on many factors such as your mother tongue), a lot of effort, patience, and resilience. Of course, the effort pays off, and not only in language fluency and accuracy.
Research shows that bilingual or multilingual people are better at performing many tasks, like:
Plus, you can transfer those skills to learning completely different abilities like gardening, painting, or even maths.
You’ll be Able to Concentrate Better
To truly understand complicated grammar rules, remember completely new vocabulary, and internalize a whole pronunciation system, you’ll need something else apart from motivation: concentration. When studying a language, you’ll need self-discipline not to be distracted by external factors. This will let you understand, for instance, the difference between two similar words or truly grasp the rules of agreement between subject and verb in Spanish (or any other language of your choice).
You’ll Increase Your Self-Confidence
Knowing a new language will allow you to connect with people from different parts of the world on a whole new level and with increased confidence. This is particularly important for those who love traveling. Even though English is considered to be a lingua franca for communication all over the world, there are many places where you are not likely to find native or fluent English speakers. Let’s take China as an example. While almost the whole population studies English at school, only 10 million have some kind of fluency (in a population of 1.3 billion!). Thus, visiting China without knowing anything about Chinese can be a true challenge.
When going abroad, there are many essential things we need to know how to do: ask how much an item is, ask for directions, ask for help, thank others, bargain… And it’s not the same to try to get by with hand gestures than feeling confident enough to carry out these actions in the native language of the place you are visiting!
It Boosts Your Creativity
You can learn a language for many reasons (to travel, to advance in your career, to connect with family living abroad) but the ultimate goal is always the same: to be able to express your ideas using a different system. And that’s exactly when you can boost your creativity, by using new words and expressions to say what’s on your mind.
The more creative you get, the better your proficiency will be. For instance, you can try and express the same thought (asking for help) in 3, 4, or 5 different ways and see how they differ in terms of formality, words needed to form the expression, and the reaction you get from others. Of course, this can later translate into more creativity in other areas of your life.
All in all, it’s clear that learning a new language does not only bring about linguistic benefits, but it promotes your wellbeing. From challenging the mind to helping you be more creative and efficient when doing something else, the benefits of becoming bilingual should not be overlooked. Get started with the language you always wanted to learn! It has more benefits than you would have thought.
And if you need help finding a native, qualified teacher, reach out to us at Language Trainers. We partner with hundreds of world-class instructors who can take you to fluency in any language you want!