Why Is It Important to Learn a Second Language?

There are at least four good reasons to learn a second language. As each one is discussed below, think about how it could be applied to your life. If any one of them resonates with you, then learning a second language is important.

Better Job Opportunities

With the world shrinking as a result of improved communications and travel, more and more careers require the ability to speak, read and write other languages. Many companies need translators, many serve a multilingual population, and many are seeking to grow in the global market. If you are looking for a job, you know how many employers are looking for bilingual employees. Of course, you don’t have to know a second language to get a job, but it sure will increase your odds if you do. If you speak a second language, there are more jobs for which you can apply, and the more jobs you apply for, the better your chances of landing one.

Better Understand Your First Language

Have you ever wondered why so many American high schools still offer Latin, a language that’s been dead for centuries, as a foreign language? Even though no one speaks Latin today as a native language, it is still at the root of many of the world’s languages and many English words. Most high school students who study Latin do so because it is very helpful on the verbal portion of the SAT. By knowing Latin, you can make really good guesses at the meanings of hundreds of English words. English developed out of so many languages, though, that studying just about any other language can help you understand it better.

Cultural Awareness

When you learn a second language, you are also learning a second culture. Our words are the means by which we understand our world. As children, we grasp concepts and identities by naming things – mama, dada, ouchy, boo-boo, juice, moron (my sister’s childhood word for motorcycle). So when you learn the names for things in another language, it’s as if you begin to see the world through the eyes of another culture. It’s a subtle thing that happens, but the more you learn of a language, the more sympathetic you become toward that culture and its people. And with the world shrinking as it is, that is very important.

Don’t Look Like a Jerk When You Travel

In Europe, it seems like almost everyone speaks two or three languages, but with other countries located within a day’s drive of your house, it’s more necessary there than in the U.S. But that doesn’t change the fact that Americans have a bad reputation across Europe for not knowing any language other than English. It comes off as arrogance. We visit foreign countries “because we want to experience other cultures,” but we expect the locals to speak English once we get there.

In most people’s international travel experience, the locals will be far more helpful if you can at least make a concerted effort to communicate in the local language. So if you have any desire to visit a foreign country, learning at least a little bit of the language is important.

Start Learning

Why is it important to learn a second language? If becoming smarter, more compassionate, more marketable or less of a jerk doesn’t appeal to you, then it’s not. But if any of those things does sound like something you’d like to become, then hit the books, join a club, find a free tutorial website, or make a foreign friend and start learning.