Top Second Language Benefits - Why You Should Seriously Consider Becoming Bilingual

People in most English speaking countries have become so convinced of the fact that you only need English to speak with the whole world that the importance of second language study among English first language speakers is currently totally undervalues. This is a very sad state of affairs since the benefits of learning a second language far outweighs the effort that it takes to do so. Here are some
'Second Language Benefits' to convince you of the importance of learning a second language:

* Communicate with a wider range of people: Some English speakers may indeed be convinced of the fact that you only need English to get around in this world. However, just a little bit of foreign travel will be enough to very quickly disabuse them of that notion. Most of the people of the world do not speak English and it not even nearly the largest first language in the world (that honour goes to Mandarin Chinese). While it is true that English is by far that fastest growing second language in the world this does not mean that everybody is currently learning English, or that they even want to do so! Communication between people from different part of the world will therefore be well served by some 'reciprocal language learning'!

* Improve your employment prospects: We often hear about the reality of globalisation. One of the implications of this trend is that more companies are doing business in more countries from more diverse linguistic background. This means that some companies are almost desperate for bilingual staff members. Knowing a second language can therefore drastically improve your employment prospects.

* Develop a better understanding of the world and its cultures: Language is an integral part of a person's identity. If you therefore make an effort to understand somebody's language you are making almost automatic progress in understanding that person (or country) better. This can of course only be a good thing in our fractured and divided world.

* Develop better cognitive and linguistic abilities: Study after study have shown that being bilingual has intellectual benefits that goes far beyond the simple satisfaction of being able to communicate with people from other cultures. Studying a second language will give you insights into the nature and structure of language that would have been very difficult to achieve in a monolingual environment. It also broadens your perspective on the range of options available for problem solving. In short, learning a second language will make you a better thinker. It will even improve your English! It has been proven that first year English students who took a second language at school consistently outperformed those who did not!

Struggling to learn a second language? I realise that it is one thing to understand second language benefits but quite another to actually master another language. Please visit http://www.factorfluff.com/Second-Language-Benefits.html for information on how this process can be streamlined and made enjoyable instead of hard, tedious and dispiriting.

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