10 Reasons to learn a new language.

There are many reasons to learn a new language. Here’s ten excellent reasons, as reported by Ithaca College, to tempt you to dip your toe in a new language.

• Personal Growth: Learning a new language is challenging, leading learners to have to re-think their strengths, weaknesses, and how they learn. Language study also helps students to develop new interests.
• Enhanced Communication Skills: Learning a new language helps you learn how to listen and respond better to others. It helps you learn how to pay attention to social cues, contexts, and body language.
• Career Opportunities: Recent research suggests that bilingual employees can earn between 5% and 20% more money per hour than those who speak only one language. Additionally, international opportunities open up to bilingual employees.
• Cultural Enrichment: Learning a new language encourages individuals to learn about associated histories, politics, and cultures. Language study also encourages individuals to become engaged in activities they might otherwise never discover.
• Educational Opportunities: Bilingual individuals oftentimes are selected over monolingual individuals to participate in special educational opportunities (study abroad, selection for workshops, scholarships, etc.).
• Cognitive Benefits: Bilingual people often have better attention and task-switching capacities than monolingual counterparts. They may also be more creative, have better metalinguistic awareness, and be better at developing visual-spatial skills.
• Social Connections: People who speak more than one language automatically gain the capacity to connect with more people. Creating social relationships leads to building closer business and community connections with each other.
• Travel and Exploration: Learning a new language often spurs interest in travel. Language learners often wish to travel to distant places to get to know them, and those who live there, more personally.