In the last blog I gave you few different reasons to start learning a new language ( read first part of the blog here). Today I have few more great (I think) reasons to pick up another language! Once you know 1 or 2, it is so much easier to learn another language.
So what is another good reason to learn a new language?
Study or live overseas! – Studiować lub mieszkać za granicą
If you feel like you’re in for some change and you’re looking for some excitement and adventure in your life, a foreign language might just be the door that’s waiting to be opened. Why not leave for a few years and study in Spain? Or perhaps find your dream job in Poland? Whatever it is that you want, knowing a second language will suddenly shrink the world and bring you opportunities of a lifetime. Are you getting itchy feet yet?
Meet new people and develop life-long friendships – Poznaj nowych ludzi i rozwijaj przyjaźnie na całe życie!
Meeting new and interesting people and developing life-long friendships (or, who knows, even the love of your life!) are certainly objectives well worth aspiring for, and learning another language is a sure way to expedite that process. Plus, learning a language is FUN!
What if you have a friend from another country who you enjoy hanging out with, but you only speak to each other in English. You feel a connection with that person, and think they’re a great friend. And then they mention one day about this other group of friends, who speak their native language, that they meet up with all the time. But you’ve never been invited, because you wouldn’t understand what anyone is saying.
Ok, so you can’t learn every language in the world and have an intimate knowledge of every single culture out there. But if there’s even one culture that you’d like to understand better, or even one person in your life you’d like to know better, then one of the best ways you can start is by learning to speak their language.
Getting in touch with your roots! – Nawiązywanie kontaktu z twoimi korzeniami!
If your family spoke a particular language in the past you might want to learn it and possibly teach it to your children. It could also be useful if you are research your family tree and some of the documents you find are written in a language foreign to you.
Food! – Jedzenie/Żywność
Perhaps you enjoy the food and/or drink of a particular country or region and make regular trips there, or the recipe books you want to use are only available in a foreign language!
Having lunch in Kazimierz Dolny, Poland
Dinner in Prague, Czech Republic
Improve your decision making skills! – Popraw swoje umiejętności podejmowania decyzji!
A study from the University of Chicago found that when people speak in a language other than their native tongue, it helps eliminate their tendency toward so-called loss aversion—that is, getting too caught up in the “here and now” to make choices that could profit us further down the road.
Bilinguals are more confident with their choices after thinking it over in the second language and seeing whether their initial conclusions still stand up. This means that if you learn a second language, this might well improve your ability to make wiser financial choices, for example. Who would’ve thought?
Everybody has different reasons for learning a language (or not). But by now, I hope I’ve managed to convince at least some of you of the amazing rewards that learning another language can bring. Of course, it’s not an easy process, and it does take time and effort. But the investment is well worth it.
Take a look at this blog to find out why you should particularly learn Polish:)
