10 Reasons to Learn a New Language

Learning a new language helps you learn how to listen and respond better to others. It helps you learn how to pay attention to social cues, contexts, and body language.

Recent research suggests that bilingual employees can earn between 5% and 20% more money per hour than those who speak only one language. Additionally, international opportunities open up to bilingual employees.

Learning a new language encourages individuals to learn about associated histories, politics, and cultures. Language study also encourages individuals to becme engaged in activities they might otherwise never discover.

Bilingual individuals oftentimes are selected over monolingual individuals to participate in special educational opportunities (study abroad, selection for workshops, scholarships, etc.).

Bilingual people often have better attention and task-switching capacities than monolingual counterparts. They may also be more creative, have better metalinguistic awareness, and be better at developing visual-spatial skills.

People who speak more than one language automatically gain the capacity to connect with more people. Creating social relationships leads to building closer business and community connections with each other.

Learning a new language often spurs interest in travel. Language learners often wish to travel to distant places to get to know them, and those who live there, more personally.

Learning a new language is challenging, leading learners to have to re-think their strengths, weaknesses, and how they learn. Language study also helps students to develop new interests.

Language study often leads learners to discover new interests in everything from food and finance to art, politics, and dance.

The ability to communicate with someone in their language is powerful. It demonstrates an understanding of others and a willingness to see the world not from one’s own point of view, but from another’s.