In today’s society, being one step ahead can account for a lot. In the modern day world, people of all cultures are constantly intercepting in one way or another, whether it be at work, in stores, or in their own neighborhoods. How could you live so close to someone and not being able to communicate with them? It’s nearly impossible. This reason, exactly, especially considering America’s diversity, is why being multilingual is pushed and praised so heavily across the world.
Many of today’s youth look at being multilingual as a ‘scary’ thing, but why? It is scary because we fear the unknown. It is a problem that, multi-linguists is not common in urban American because the youth is ignorant to all its benefits. According to research done by ATLA, depending on your language background, you can become fluent in another language in as little as three months, or it may take you years.
Every person is different, and the time it takes to learn a new language is based upon how much time you can devote to studying, your natural ability to learn languages, and your ultimate goal in learning the language.
It is important to learn the language of others because of emigration. It is common to live just next door to someone not of your same decent or someone with the same culture background as yours. Being that this is so, you must know how to speak with them, if not just for courteous purposes. As well as if you work with someone, you might be placed in situations that would require you to partner up with someone of a different native tongue than yours, and if you cannot successfully converse then you will not perform so well, which could ultimately result in problems on your job.
Also, when in school, you may be faced with a certain subject that catches your interest but the content may be published in a foreign language. Knowing another language could grant you access to materials you may have never had the opportunity to learn from. For more secretive people, if you make friends with someone who speaks another language as yourself, then you could hold a private conversation in a room full of people, and just because they aren’t fluent and you are, it would be like having your own private, or secret language.
Aspects of money come to play as well when discussing benefits of multi-linguistics. If you can speak more than one language, especially one not common to your local area, then you are more at an advantage to someone who is only unilingual. Jobs are more likely to hire you over someone who can only speak English because of the scarcity of multilingual laborers. The traveling thing will also come into play, everyone secretly dreams to travel the world one day and visit all the lands of the unknown, and if you could break the language barrier, then your travels would be, probably, safer, more enjoyable, and more of a learning experience.
As you can see, there are more than an infinite amount of reasons why we should explore other languages from around the world, and not only the common ones, but those that are less popular. Though learning a second language is both time consuming and requires tons of dedication, the benefits that you can reap are more than a reward.