Learning a New Language - Reasons For You to Take the Plunge

Language is one of the things that both connects and separates human beings. Being able to communicate in more than one language has many benefits, as any bilingual or multilingual person can tell you. New opportunities, both professional and personal, will become available to you.

Experts say that there are about 2,700 parent languages and 8,000 dialects (variations of a language) throughout the world. That's only an estimate because it's not always cut and dried as to when a dialect has evolved into a distinct new language. Still, it's a rather astounding statistic. Which language you choose to study will, of course, depend on your reasons for studying it.
You may want to learn a widely spoken language.

For example, Chinese has more than twice as many native speakers as the number two ranked language, English. However, it's spoken in fewer countries than English is. (Also, there are more people that speak English as a second language than people who speak Chinese as a second language.) Spanish is another good choice if you want to become bilingual.

Perhaps your employer does business internationally. If you know the required language, you could get paid to travel to, or even live in, a foreign country. This is a very exciting prospect if you're the adventurous type. With your conversational ability, you can talk easily with the locals, see things the tourist crowd never sees, and make lasting friends around the world.

You may have older family members who still speak the tongue of their native land, or relatives in a far away country who would love to get to know you if you came for a visit. Language can bring family closer, just as it can turn strangers into friends.

Maybe you would simply like to broaden your horizons and increase your general knowledge of the world. You can ease into it by learning a language related to your mother tongue, or you can pick one that is entirely different. Either way, it's sure to be an interesting challenge. You may enjoy it so much that you keep adding languages to your repertoire.

No matter what your reason for studying a new language, and no matter which one you choose, it's a worthwhile activity that you'll never regret. You can easily start learning on your own and then work on your skills by practising with others. Just remember, it's never too late to appreciate our multicultural