Hello and welcome back to the Thoughts that Bind. And if you’re new, welcome! I hope you enjoy your time here and consider subscribing to the blog. Recently, I’ve been through some big changes in my life. And one of them includes learning a new language. For the past year (plus a few months), I have been making my way towards becoming bilingual. And at first it seemed more like something I had to do. But the more that I’ve learned, the more I’ve noticed some benefits. This made me curious, and I decided to look into what science and the internet had to say about the matter.
As it turns out, learning a language is super good for you and your life! And so today, I really wanted to just talk to you all. About what I’ve noticed, what I’ve learned, and really just encourage you. If you’ve ever wanted to try learning a language (or even if you’ve never thought of it before), to give it a try!
Don’t take this lightly
First, I want to acknowledge the elephant in the room. Learning a language is not an easy endeavor. When I say, “you should learn another language,” I’m not talking about putting on a telenovela and expecting to learn through osmosis like they show you on all of the tv shows. Learning a language takes time, effort and motivation. It’s something that you have to keep pushing through. It’s something that will be uncomfortable. And, if you’re anything like me, it’s something that will probably make you cry more than once.
But it’s an incredibly worthwhile endeavor. Learning a language in my experience is more like giving your whole life over to a whole new system of being. It is labor intensive, and at times exhausting. It’s a marathon. It’s cooking Thanksgiving dinner on an empty stomach. And when you finally start getting to the stages of being able to say “maybe I speak this language a little bit now”…well, the achievement feels just as good. Here are some of the goodies that learning another language can (and will) bring you.
There’s no shame in looking stupid and being wrong
I remember when I was younger, I had a very hard time being wrong or looking silly. This made me appear very shy and at times, a smart-alec. But what I really was, was terrified. I was terrified of getting things wrong or looking like I didn’t know what I was talking about. As I got older, I eventually got a little better. I learned to stop posturing and how to say “I don’t know”. In fact, it’s become quite frequent for me. And yet, with all of that progress, I still found it quite difficult to just get over myself and practice my bad Spanish.
The thing about learning a language is you have to start all over again from zero. And it kind of sucks. You feel stupid sometimes, or like a child. You don’t know what things are called or how to put together thoughts to express your desires, thoughts and feelings. And when you think you’ve got something, it comes out wrong. Sometimes people laugh at you or you accidentally say things like “I’m pregnant” or “I put myself in the garbage”. But when you keep on keeping on, you do start to make less silly mistakes. And that’s a relief.
But the thing I found more valuable is this sense of relief I’ve gained from my past insecurities. So what if I make mistakes? So what if I sound stupid? If I can eventually be understood, that’s a triumph in my eyes. And if not, then it’s only a sign that I have some more things to work on.
Continually making (sometimes quite embarrassing) mistakes has an incredible upside. At a certain point, the embarrassment decreases dramatically. I’ve gotten to the point where when someone corrects me, it doesn’t feel so bad anymore. In fact, often I even feel grateful for it. (Not all the time, but often.) If you’re someone who gets embarrassed easily or hates being corrected, the beginning stages of learning a language may be quite difficult for you. (As they were for me.) But if you persevere, you’ll find your disposition much improved.
It’s great for your brain!
So all of the sources on learning a new language seem to agree on one thing—it’s one of the best things you can do if you want to grow your brain. We find that people who are multi-lingual have greater focus than mono-lingual people. And learning a new language also helps keep your brain active and thus, keeps symptoms of dementia at bay or prevented. It also helps boost your memory in general.
And so if you want to keep your brain healthy and active, it seems like learning a new language is the way to go, really. Both the learning of a new language and having learned a new language seem to have beneficial effects on brain health. So if you’re on the older side and feeling self-conscious about your lack of extra languages, fear not! You can start learning now and experience benefits from doing so.
A good career move
This may come as a surprise to some, but knowing another language can be a great thing for your career. Whether you’re already settled in a job you like or are looking for a new one or promotion, being bilingual can be a secret weapon of sorts. You see, this world is becoming more global by the day. Companies are having international mergers, working with clients across an ocean, hiring contractors in different places, and not to mention dealing with a more diverse clientele than ever.
Learning another language can bring you a level of job security, put you at the top of the list for promotions, and having another language listed as a skill on your résumé can impress potential employers even if it’s not a requirement for the job. It shows that you’re the kind of person who takes time to improve themselves, as well as suggests a certain level of cultured-ness that I think we all secretly strive for.
Not to mention, there are many jobs that just flat-out could use your language skills. Translators, of course. But in any job dealing with the public in some way or another, your eligibility would be improved by being bilingual. If you want to maximize the benefits, be choosy about what language you learn. Pick one that is spoken by many immigrants where you live or by neighboring countries. Or for that matter, you could ask your employer what would be the most useful language to learn for your career.
You can talk to so many more people!
Okay, so it’s true that this one really depends on what language you choose. At the same time, learning a whole new system of speaking means that you’re going to be able to talk to more people that you otherwise wouldn’t have been able to. And at first blush, you might think, “well, obviously” and just dismiss this point, but I want you to really take a second to think about what that entails. Because actually, it’s a pretty big deal.
Say there’s one person who walks in the room, but since they don’t speak English (or your native language, whatever that may be), nobody can understand them. But then you walk up and strike up a conversation with them. You figure out what it is they’re saying, help them with whatever they’re talking about and make a new friend in the process. Everyone’s happy, (and impressed with you) and you get to be a hero (of sorts). That’s pretty special.
But also it means that your world gets bigger. A lot bigger, if you choose a language that’s more commonly spoken. If you are a native, monolingual, English speaker, you may not have a sense for what that might mean. It means that you can go places where you might otherwise have felt uncomfortable. You can travel to another country without worrying about where you can find a menu in your language or worrying about how to get around. Because you’ll be able to read the signs and ask locals for directions.
It also means that other cultures that once seemed very foreign and confusing start to make more sense. This is because you get to talk to people from that culture and consume their content. And while culture is not exactly explicit in language, there are many clues in language learning itself about how its speakers think and behave. As you learn more about the language and practice your skills with native speakers and native content, you realize the great truth about humanity. We’re all just people. And our life circumstances train us to be prone to one thing or another. So yes, talking to more people is one of the coolest things about learning a language. However, that’s external. There are also internal benefits.
You start to change your mind
So we already talked about how learning a new language is good for your brain in things like form, focus and function. Which it is, but it’s also great for your perspective, in an abstract sense. What I mean is, in general, learning a language can be a pretty straightforward process. At least, you’d think. You want to know a word, you learn what it’s called in the new language, you memorize it, and then you can talk about that thing from thereon out. Which is more or less true.
But each language has its own peculiarities and differs in how it expresses ideas. Which may sound like my way of trying to spin an annoyance into something cool, but it’s not. It does make language learning more difficult, but it also lends to some new perspectives and ways your brain processes your thoughts and feelings. Not to mention, there are just things in other languages that your native language just doesn’t have. And the more you learn about the language and speak it with native speakers, the more of this stuff you’re going to learn.
These things take a little bit longer to learn, because obviously they don’t have direct translations in your language. But as they start to permeate your barrier of understanding, they form some powerful changes in your mind. Your brain learns new ideas and perspectives by learning a new language that were otherwise off limits before, simply due to your filter of understanding. And there’s little way of predicting that before you get started. But once you start to acquire them, it feels like a superpower. (Just don’t attempt to make native speakers of your language understand, because that’s a fruitless activity.)
You appreciate your first language more
Now I wanted to save this one for last because it came as quite the surprise to me. It seems counterintuitive, because you learn another language to, well, acquire an understanding and appreciation for that language. And that happens and it’s great and everything. But what really caught me by surprise was how learning another language makes you learn more about your own and have a greater appreciation for it in the process. Whether it’s realizing you like how your language expresses the ideas of possible outcomes, or your own slang words, or simply how some phrases roll off the tongue in your language, there are going to be things that you find where it’s like, “wow, I never realized how easy and cool that was before.”
Which, the more I think about it, makes sense. When this language is the only one you have, you’re bound to take its quirks for granted, good or bad. It’s a joy to find out that something that’s complex in your language is simple in the one you’re trying to learn. But for me, the closer I get to bilingual, the more I find myself appreciating English in ways I never would have thought to do before. It feels less of a default and more of a gift, and that’s pretty special.
Conclusion
Thank you for reading my thoughts about language-learning. I hope that after this you feel encouraged to start learning a new language, now that you know all of the goodies it comes with. And if you are learning a language right now and were starting to feel a little demotivated, I hope this helped renew your spirit. The fact is, learning a new language is such an awesome, transformative thing. I wouldn’t want any of my readers to miss out if they had any interest in it. Remember, it is work. But when you do the work, you are truly achieving a lot!
If you like what I had to say, consider subscribing to the blog for email notifications when a new post goes live. We love to talk ways to lead a purposeful, vivacious, fulfilling life. And tell me in the comments below, what languages do you speak? Are you currently studying a new one?
