Why Learn a Foreign Language? 5 Days of Foreign Language

This post is part one of a five part series.
Check back tomorrow for the next in the series!
See all posts in this series.

Foreign language is often a requirement for high school graduation as well as  many colleges. If you graduated before 1996 (give or take a few years), you may not have had to meet this requirement. I personally missed it for high school but had to meet it for college.

Besides those reasons, what would make someone *want* to learn a foreign language? Or why might you want your child to learn another language? If you are reading this in the language that it was written, English, you are part of the minority that can. Roughly 4/5 (give or take) of the world’s population do not speak or read English. A few reasons to learn a foreign language:

• To be able to communicate about God to those of a different language.
• To keep a connection to your ancestry.
• To increase intelligence. {or at least mental activity *wink*}
• To increase diversity and adaptability in the workplace and society.
• For fun! {oh yes…. really}

Could you imagine if no one wanted to learn a language other than their own? My son asked me why every one else doesn’t just learn English. Well! They would be learning a foreign language! How can we expect others to do it if we won’t ourselves?

The first reason I listed is to be able to communicate about God to others. Just imagine if missionaries refused to learn the language of the country they are ministering in. A bit awkward, don’t you think?  But it isn’t just for missionaries that learning a foreign language is helpful for spreading the wonders of God- in our every day lives we come in contact with those who do not speak our native language {English, in my case}. Oh to be able to say, “God is good!” in any language!

If being able to proclaim God’s wonders isn’t at the top of your list, perhaps you are concerned more with ‘intelligence’. Just like playing a musical instrument has been shown to increase cognitive activity (the more brain activity- the more ‘intelligence’), so also does learning a foreign language.

“[L]anguage is the instrument of thought; and lack of clearness and precision in our language is a sure indication of a corresponding muddle in our thinking; while an increase in our command of language means an increase in power of thought.”-"Why Learn Greek and Latin?" by R. L. Leighton, Head Master, The Grammar School, Bristol, Volume 10, 1899, pgs. 104-?; emphasis mine

If mastering our mother tongue can be an indicator of our thinking ability, how much more so will ‘mastering’ a second {or third} language!

Some people have cited the desire to learn a new language because it is part of their heritage. Perhaps Grandma or Great-Aunt is a native of Russia, Brazil or still speaks a Native American language. Learning the language of our ancestors can help develop a connection, a bond, with another generation. Passing the language onto subsequent generations increases that bond.

The next reason I’ve listed almost needs no explanation: increase diversity and adaptability in the workplace and society. When looking for a job recently, there were an innumerable amount of ads that specified “bilingual” preferred. Even one or two said “trilingual” and “multilingual”! Those last two words were very rare when I was younger, if I ever even saw them; bilingual wasn’t even very common at the time.  The point is, the world is ‘shrinking’ and people are coming ‘closer’ together than they have before. The more adaptable and diverse one is in languages will propel them farther forward in the workplace and society in general.

I’m used to living in fairly small towns where occasionally Spanish was spoken by a few other individuals and none in my immediate circle. Now I live in one of the most populated areas in Ohio- the diversity here is staggering at times! It’s great though, and has spurred me on to want to learn another language- or two or three!

Which leads me to the last reason: for fun. Learning a new language can indeed be fun. It is interesting to listen to what “How are you?” {or any other phrase that we use and hear all the time} sounds like in another language. It is enlightening when we hear someone say something in a foreign language and we can understand them. Think also of the movies, songs and books that you could see, sing, and read if you knew a second {or third} language!

So, I’ve listed some basic reasons for learning a foreign language. Here is a link to a website with 10 reasons to learn a foreign language. Here’s another site with 12 reasons. What are your reasons? Tomorrow’s post will be about Choosing Your Foreign Language- what are some criteria for picking a certain language over another. Come back and read!

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“God is good” in 5 Languages {according to Google Translate}:
Russian: Бог добр.
Japanese: 神は良いです。
Chinese (Simplified): 上帝是好的。
German: Gott ist gut.
Spanish: Dios es bueno.