The benefits of learning a foreign language
Learning a foreign language contributes to brain growth, preventing dementia, developing memory, improving attention, and much more.
“To know another language means to find a second soul” - Charlemagne.
Some people think that knowledge of a foreign language will create confusion in the head or some other trouble. To mention this is quite absurd, not something that is taken seriously. Of course, certain studies were conducted, during which scientists allegedly found out that people who know several languages have problems with vocabulary, and they understand more slowly.
But these myths and minor defects cover a huge wave of benefits from learning a foreign language from the psychological side. And this benefit is not only to learn to ask for directions or order coffee in a restaurant.
1. Brain development
The language centers of the brain really grow as a result of successful learning of a foreign language. The better a person learns, the more these vital parts of the brain grow.
2. Prevention of dementia
Knowledge of foreign languages helps to prevent or delay Alzheimer's disease in people prone to it for a period of five years. It seems incredible, but research results continue to confirm this hypothesis. Let's just say this: learning a foreign language is more effective in delaying the disease than any medicine.
3. Man hears language better
Due to the fact that the brain has to listen to the sounds of an unknown language, it begins to work more efficiently and improves listening skills.
4. It becomes easier to perceive other languages.
Children who grew up in bilingual families can define languages without ever hearing them. By distinguishing between childhood, for example, Spanish and Catalan, a child can easily distinguish between English and French.
5. Improving memory
Children who grew up in a bilingual environment have a stronger memory than their peers from a monolingual environment. This means that children think better in their minds, read, and perform other mental operations well.
6. Helps easier to switch between operations
People switch more easily and react faster in unpredictable situations.
7. Increases attention.
Bilingual people are more focused and less responsive to interference.
8. New look at things
Learning a new language can literally change the way a person looks at the world. For example, if an Englishman learns Japanese, which has separate words for blue and blue (there are only light and dark blue in English), they can change his perception of colors.
9. Improved native language
Since the study of a foreign language draws the person’s attention to abstract rules and language structures, it is easy to learn these rules and improve the native language. As kazal Geoffrey Willans: "You will never understand the native language, until at least you learn two more."
10. Catching other cultures.
Cultural enrichment plays an important role in the study of a foreign language. It helps not only to comprehend a new culture, but also to look at one’s own culture from a different angle.
Summarizing all the above, one can easily agree that a person, learning a new language, still acquires a kind of “second soul”. And along with it, and a set of useful skills.
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