{"id":84707,"date":"2014-11-20T08:00:34","date_gmt":"2014-11-20T14:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/?p=84707"},"modified":"2014-11-19T17:37:10","modified_gmt":"2014-11-19T23:37:10","slug":"why-learning-a-second-language-will-make-you-better-at-life-and-your-job","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/?p=84707","title":{"rendered":"Why learning a second language will make you better at life (and your job.)"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Holly Boyer<\/a>, Senior Editor, INALJ Utah<\/a>, Vermont<\/a>, Virginia<\/a>, West Virginia<\/a>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Why learning a second language will make you better at life (and your job.)<\/span><\/h3>\n

\"holly<\/a>Full disclosure: I am a language nerd. I started studying French in 6th\u00a0grade and am now fluentish in\u00a0Spanish and Portuguese. I have a BA in Spanish. And I strongly believe, regardless of any evidence that\u00a0does\/does not exist, that learning a second (or more) language is one of the most important things you\u00a0can do to improve your life.<\/p>\n

1. Let\u2019s just get this one out of the way. Knowing a second language improves career\u00a0opportunities.<\/strong> So you ever get frustrated at those announcements for your dream job only to\u00a0get to the required skills and see that you have to know Spanish? I love those, because I know\u00a0that there\u2019s at least one requirement in that job ad that I actually meet. And knowing a second\u00a0language will help even the jobs that don\u2019t list a language as a requirement. You never know\u00a0when it might come in handy to have an employee who speaks Hindi.<\/p>\n

2. You can make more money.<\/strong> Depending on the language, you can make bank. Government\u00a0organizations and their contractors need people who have language skills, and if you speak one\u00a0or more critical languages<\/a>, you can make more money. The CIA, for example, offers language\u00a0bonuses (and hires librarians.)<\/p>\n

3. It improves your English language skills.<\/strong> As you learn the mechanics of a foreign language\u00a0(grammar, sentence structure, conjugations), you beef up your knowledge of English language\u00a0mechanics. This improvement will protect you from the internet grammar police and make your<\/p>\n

4. It makes you more culturally aware and sensitive to the challenges of English language\u00a0learners.<\/strong> Imagine you work in a public library and a limited English speaker comes up to\u00a0the reference desk to ask you question. With your experience trying to learn a second\u00a0language, you are more adept at serving that person even though the two of you have trouble\u00a0communicating. You know exactly where they\u2019re coming from. Also, there is a whole body\u00a0of study that shows that second language learners are more aware and tolerant of cultural\u00a0differences.<\/p>\n

5. Your brain gets stronger.<\/strong> There have been numerous studies on bilinguals how they are better\u00a0at multi-tasking, decision-making, perceptiveness, and have better memories. They even have\u00a0greater protection from some forms of dementia, and may delay the onset of Alzheimer\u2019s\u00a0symptoms. Adult second language learners also reap these benefits, although the extent to\u00a0which is not exactly clear. In his article, \u201cThe Benefits of Failing at French<\/a>\u201d, William Alexander\u00a0talks about how even though he learn much French in the year he studied it, his scores on a\u00a0cognitive assessment taken before and after his failed French experiment improved drastically.\u00a0He could actually remember the items on his shopping list! Just think, studying that second\u00a0language might help you remember why you walked into the staff room.<\/p>\n

This sounds awesome, right? So, now what? First, try your public library. There are great online\u00a0tools, like Mango Languages<\/a>, that may be available. Also, some libraries offer discussion groups in\u00a0certain languages. Or, you can try an in person class through a continuing education program at your\u00a0local community college. If you\u2019re truly brave, you could join the Peace Corps or do mission work\u00a0and immerse yourself in the culture and language of a new country. And if you\u2019re independently\u00a0wealthy, you could move to a place where the language you want to learn is spoken (and I\u2019m\u00a0extremely jealous of you.)<\/p>\n

In my personal experience, the hardest part about learning a new language is getting over the\u00a0embarrassment and fear of just opening your mouth and talking. You\u2019re going to say it wrong. A\u00a0lot. Sometimes you\u2019ll say something that you think means one thing but actually means something\u00a0else (and once you find out what it really means you\u2019re going to be mortified.) But that\u2019s ok. No one\u00a0instantly learns a language; even babies need a few years before they can grasp the intricacies of\u00a0grammar and sentence structure.<\/p>\n

Go for it. Your brain will thank you later.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Holly Boyer, Senior Editor, INALJ Utah, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia\u00a0 Why learning a second language will make you better at life (and your job.) Full disclosure: I am a language nerd. I started studying French in 6th\u00a0grade and am now fluentish in\u00a0Spanish and Portuguese. I have a BA in Spanish. And I strongly believe,…<\/p>\n

Read more \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":63826,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[145],"tags":[69,3592,5883,6685,3651,3663,3595,5071,4997,5511,4996],"class_list":["post-84707","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","tag-article","tag-blog","tag-holly-boyer","tag-inalj-cermont","tag-inalj-utah","tag-inalj-virginia","tag-inalj-west-virginia","tag-language","tag-learning-another-language","tag-learning-languages","tag-second-language"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/holly-boyer.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1WoMK-m2f","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84707","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=84707"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84707\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/63826"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=84707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=84707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=84707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}