It’s always funny when you’re standing in line at a Costco and the two girls behind you make a loud comment about your hair. They don’t think you can hear them, because they’re speaking in another language, but you do. Being bi/tri/multilingual has so many perks; understanding the shade people throw at you in line at a convenience store is only one of them.
Communication is incredibly important, whether you are traveling across the country, or simply talking to one of your neighbors. Speaking more than one language allows you to speak to an entirely new category of people. It’s as if language is a key, and learning it unlocks a new world. There are many fish in the sea, but if you speak only one language, you are limited to only one kind of fish.
Being able to talk to people globally is wonderful, but that’s not the only thing a new language brings along with it. Learning a new language, whether through immersion or in a class, brings light to a new culture.
By learning a new language, you learn the ways people live their lives completely differently than you. You have the ability to compare cultures, and to be tolerant to the cultures you are exposed to.
Food, dancing, and celebrations are all new topics that you are exposed to once you learn a new language. Once you learn a new language and become fluent in it, picking up other languages becomes easier, because language structures work in similar ways. Being bilingual brings you one step closer to understanding the rest of the world.
I learned Farsi from my parents, Spanish all throughout high school, and I'm learning Russian in college. I hope that my quest to learn languages doesn't end here. Oftentimes people ask me why I'm learning a language if I've already fulfilled my language requirement in high school. I don't learn a language so I can check off a box on a transcript, but rather so I can become connected with those around me, and around the world.
Language not only enhances your life, but your mind. Psychology shows that being bilingual effectively develops certain aspects of your brain, such as cognitive processing and decision making
“You make decisions more rationally if you think about them in a foreign language. Trying to process a second vocabulary eliminates your immediate emotional instincts, which makes you think more analytically and reduces your need to avoid the possibility of loss.” (x)
Both languages are active in the brain at all times and are actually in constant competition with each other. Your brain becomes more active and engaged when you introduce it to a new language. (x)
So pick up your parent’s language, or take that language class you’ve always wanted to learn in college. I assure you, you won’t regret it.
