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Bumsoo Park
2/7/15
English-112
Mrs. Lacey
Have you ever had trouble communicating with someone who speaks a different
language? Or have you felt left out from your friends who speak different languages?
Being able to speak more than one language cannot only save you from these situations,
but also give you a lot of benefits. In fact, learning another language is so important that
it is required for you to take a second language in order to graduate from school.
Although some people believe it is hard to learn a second language, learning a second
language should be mandatory because the benefits are exponential.
The evolution of the Internet along with the computer in late 1900s brought this
world really close to each other. HISTORY article claims that today, almost one-third of
the worlds 6.8 billion people use the Internet regularly (History.com staff, 2010). Besides
the Internet, development of transportation such as cars, trains or planes carries hundreds
of thousands of people across the continents. With these developments in technology, this
generation is more connected than ever was. People have friends across the world, and
there are millions of people who travel to other countries for various reasons. Due to this
rapidly growing technology, it is expected that the people in the world will be brought
even closer together in near future. From a simple business meeting to international
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summit, languages are what brings people closer and makes them understand each other.
Therefore, it is almost necessary to know more than one language in order to
communicate with other people from different countries or cultures.
Although some people might say that the time will come when our technology is
so advanced that it will translate perfect language for us. If it does, we wouldnt have to
worry about learning another language. However, it is impossible for a computer to
translate a perfect language because language is not simply consisted of meanings, but
also history of people, emotion and tradition. Unless the computer is human, they will
never be able to translate the language perfectly. From this hypothesis, one can also
conclude that learning a language is also learning history, emotion and tradition. Learning
a language is so much more than learning a language itself!
It is well-known fact that global companies put higher value on multilingual
candidates when they are hiring. Whether companies are expanding their business
overseas or trying to participate in a larger market, employers seek out bilingual workers,
or people with the ability to speak and communicate in more than one language. In fact, a
recent keyword search on CareerBuilder.com showed more than 6,000 job postings
looking for multilingual applicants (Morsch, par. 2). Also, according to Salary.com,
bilinguals get paid about 5 to 20 percent per hour more than the position's base rate
(Morsch, par. 6). This is because employers are willing to pay much more for the
valuable bilingual workers. Bottom line, literally, being bilingual pays off!
Besides all those numbers and logical reasoning, there is a real reason why one
should learn another language: it is a game upgrader. An international survey of more
than 5,000 men and women claims that one finds bilinguals more attractive (Clark, 2013).
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For the reason that is, speaking different language in front of the opposite sex can give
him or her quite positive impressions: it peaks their interest and makes you seem
intelligent. Also, according to the survey, the sexiest language is French, followed by
Italian and Spanish. English is placed at fourth while Korean is placed at the last.
Another benefit that you get from being multilingual is that you get a free access
to more than one culture. One of the greatest things that you can experience is other
cultures and tradition. However, it is hard to fully experience a culture without knowing
its language even with a translator. For example, when someone tells a joke in one
language, a person may not understand the joke since he only knows the definition of it,
but does not fully understand the language. Understanding the language, one can explore
and experience the cultures and traditions of that region to the full extent, which can
really impact ones thoughts and point of view. Imagine if you could travel to a culture
that you can enjoy with your lover. Wouldnt that be awesome?
Learning a language not only has visible effect, but it also has not-shown impacts
on us. There are many studies on how languages affect our brain. Swedish neuroscientists
discovered the increase in size of the brain when an individual was taught a foreign
language (Mackey, par. 1). An MRI studies from Swedish neuroscientists have shown a
development in size of specific areas of brain when learning second language (Mackey,
par. 2). These developed areas, hippocampus and cerebral cortex, gave experiment
participants better language and communication skills. Further studies from MRI brain
scan revealed that a unique sound, that a particular language has, activates certain part of
the brain (Mackey, par. 3, 4). This means, by learning different language and a new
sound, one can activate part of ones brain that one would have never developed.
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Another wonderful thing that learning a language does is that it gives us power to
multi-task. Multi-tasking may be very hard to those who are not used to it. In a sense,
being a bilingual is pretty much same as multi-tasking. People who are multilingual are
constantly working their brain to switch from one language system to a totally different
language mechanics. This is a high-concentration required work, not only for the tongue,
but especially for the brain (Florio, par. 3). Therefore, people who have developed such
skill are very good at multi-tasking. An experimental study from Pennsylvania State
University was conducted to support this. Two groups of people were in the experiments
where they tested how well they retain shopping lists and name (Hammes, par. 2).
Memorizing shopping lists and name is representing test for memory and multi-tasking. A
group of multilingual was shown to be better at the experiment, which supports the
foundation statement. One can simply be a multi-tasker by just learning another language.
Learning different language is not hard once you put some effort in it and it gives
you so many benefits. School is making you learn second language anyways, so why
dont you make a use of it and put some effort in to learn other language rather than
wasting time to barely try to pass the class? Ludwig Wittgenstein once said, The limits
of my language are the limits of my world. Language is the door that connects you to the
new world, a bigger world. Do you want to live your life to its full extent? Dont you
want to experience all the beautiful things in this world? Dont limit yourself from the
world by giving up the chance of learning another language. Conquer the language and
you will change your life.
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Works Cited
Clark, Sarah. "Bilingual Is Sexy, so Says International Survey." Fox4kccom. Ztv Listing,
14 Feb. 2013. Web. 24 Feb. 2015.
Hammes, Kerstin. "It's Good to Be Bilingual! 8 Reasons You Should Learn a Second
Language." RSS. Fluent, 26 Feb. 2014. Web. 24 Feb. 2015.
Mackey, Alison. "What Happens in the Brain When You Learn a Language?"
Theguardian. N.p., 4 Sept. 2014. Web. 23 Feb. 2015.
Morsch, Laura. "Why It Pays to Be Bilingual." AOL Jobs. Aol Jobs Contributer, 26 Jan.
2009. Web. 23 Feb. 2015.