Learning a second language is an incredibly useful life skill, and opens up new opportunities. There are many options available which lend themselves to your preferred learning style.
Health benefits include:
- Meet new people If you’re learning in a group setting, you immediately have new friends to share your new language with. Then, once you go somewhere and are actually able to use what you’ve learned, you’ll be surprised how open people are when you speak their language.
- It’s great for traveling Putting your learning into practice enhances your holiday experience.
- Your memory improves Acquiring a new language improves your memory and increases your attention span. The process of becoming bilingual exercises your brain, challenges you to concentrate and boosts your problem-solving skills.
- Improves your first language Learning a foreign language draws your focus to the mechanics of language. This makes you more aware of language, and the ways it can be structured and manipulated. Language speakers also develop a better ear for listening, since they’re skilled at distinguishing meaning from discreet sounds.
- Delays onset of dementia Learning a foreign language keeps your brain healthy for longer. Scientists have found that people who can speak more than one language tend to develop dementia up to five years later than monolingual people, regardless of their education level, gender or occupation. Keeping your brain active is one way in which to delay the onset of dementia.
- Builds your self-confidence Learning a new language involves mastering new skills, which tends to increase self-confidence.
- Builds rapid sequencing skills Rapid sequencing is improved as multilingual people become skilled at switching between two systems of speech, writing, and structure.
"A new language is a new life." – Persian Proverb