There are many reasons to learn a new language, and all of them are beneficial.
In today’s global society, being mono-lingual – just speaking one language – is the equivalent to having an old fashioned landline telephone.
Being bi-lingual upgrades you to a cell phone, which lets you receive and make calls, and even send text messages from wherever you are.
Good enough for most people, wouldn’t you agree?
But, by becoming tri-lingual or even a polyglot, you have a smartphone with all of the apps and unlimited bandwidth. You are able to communicate wherever you go.
More reasons to learn a new language
- It opens up a World of Job Opportunities
- Gives Your Brain a Boost and enhances your cognitive and analytical abilities
- Establishes Deeper Connections and Cross-Cultural Friendships in local language
- You Get An Outsider’s Perspective about Your Own Culture
- You Become More Interesting and Meet More Interesting People
- Stay Smart in Tourist Areas and blend in
- It helps you to think logically
- Enjoy books in their original language
- No More getting ripped off when overseas
Fear – One of the best reasons to learn a new language
One item which is virtually always overlooked is fear. The fear of not understanding what it being said and how that can affect your actions. Imagine being in an elevator or on a train with a group of people talking a foreign language. You look at how they are dressed, how they behave and conclude that they are up to no good. The likelihood, however, is that they are just talking about everyday things like the weather, their kids or their job.
Learning one new language makes learning another one easier, especially if they are the same type of language.
Take Spanish which is a romance language. With Spanish under your belt, you can probably be able to understand written Portuguese and Italian.
If you speak Dutch, then you will probably pick up German quite quickly. Likewise Danish, Swedish and Norwegian are all closely linked and many Arabic languages are also similar for the most part.
There are endless reasons to learn a new language and like the examples above, many languages are very achievable, once you have desire to do so.
Learning a new language the old fashioned way
The problem with learning new languages is that you need to put in so much work at the beginning and the payback is limited. Nearly all teaching systems start the same way:
Learn the alphabet, the number 1 to 100, say hello, please, thank you. Etc.
Very few systems teach you how to have a conversation and completely ignore the boring – but important – verb endings. As young children we learn through listening, repeating and touching, yet the minute a new language is introduced you have to open a book and learn stuff the old fashioned way.
Learning a new language in a fun way
Learning a new language should be fun – at least initially – you need to capture the attention of the students. Give them something to giggle about, make it interesting and they will remember. If they remember, then they are more likely to try harder as their first experiences were fun.
‘Gilsworld’ is not a school and we do not teach children how to speak a new language. Gil the Travelling (Traveling, if you are in the U.S or Canada) Gecko is simply here to try and create a spark of interest in your children. If they become inspired to learn a new language then that is fantastic.
We all know that learning something which we want to learn is far easier than having it forced upon us.
Starting Early when learning a new language
It has been long been acknowledged that children’s brains can be hardwired to recognise tones (tonalities) and guttural sounds which are particular to a language.
Nursery rhymes and simple songs from different countries and in different languages can be played to new born children and toddlers. Although children will not have an immediate benefit, they will find learning new languages in the future far easier.
Hopefully our reasons to learn a new language, will inspire you to help your children to trade in their landline for an all singing and all dancing smart phone,