Top Ten Reasons to Learn a Foreign Language

From the Executive Director – Dottoressa  Elisa Fierro

Top ten reasons to learn a new language:

1.       Challenges. Do you like a good challenge? Challenge yourself to learn a foreign language and when you do it, enjoy the wonderful feeling of self-satisfaction, the awareness that there are no limits to what you can do, if you really want it.

2.       Fun. Foreign languages are fun to learn. I personally speak Italian, German, English, and two Italian dialects. I am learning Spanish and hope to be able to learn Russian in the future. It is so much fun and I only wish I had more than one lifetime to learn even more languages!

3.       Grammar. When learning a foreign language, you must inevitably learn its grammar and in the process you will re-discover the rules governing your own native language. Have you have noticed that many Europeans speak more grammatically correct English than many Americans? That’s because they study English grammar in depth and know the grammar of their own language just as well. Goethe said: “Wer keine fremde Sprache spricht, kennt seine Sprache nicht” (don’t settle for my translation: learn German instead!)

4.       Healthy brain. According to recent research, to learn a foreign language is like putting new hardware in a computer. The cells in your brain are forced to make new connections and to be active: language learning can help fight the terrible disease that is affecting more and more people in the U.S. – Alzheimer’s.

5.       New friends. Languages are a great way to make new friends in different parts of the world. Although many people in the U.S. think that English is the language everybody speaks (or should speak), Chinese and Spanish are actually much more widely spoken throughout the world.

6.       Originals. I don’t like book translations. Some of them are masterpieces in their own right, sure, but they are always the translator’s masterpiece. I want to read the exact words the writer chose, feel the musicality, and understand the word’s precise role in the sentence. I believe that some words (in any language) are simply untranslatable: we must read the original and savor it. Native speaker instructors can teach us how to do it.

7.       Respect. It opens our minds to have respect for other peoples’ traditions and customs. By traveling and learning other languages, we come into contact with different aspects of other cultures and get an understanding of behaviors that might at first seem completely alien and incomprehensible.

8.       Tolerance and peace. Respect generates tolerance and in the end peace. I will always remember a very keen comment made by one of my Italian students. I was clarifying some grammar structures and pointing out how English also has structures that might be difficult for foreign learners. I also explained that our mind has a tendency to apply the rules of our native language to any new language we are learning (a phenomenon called “transfer” in linguistics). Then this student said: “Now I understand why people who come from other countries sometimes form sentences that sound so strange to our ears. They are applying the rules of their own native language!” If we could all have the insight that she had, how many wars might be avoided?

9.       Traveling. When I travel, I like to be in charge of my trip. Instead of depending on a tour guide and tormenting him or her with endless questions, I do my homework. I want to know some basic expressions that I can need on everyday situations. I want to be able to thank the waiter or the salesclerk, or to buy my own souvenirs. To know the language of the country you are visiting will make the trip so much more meaningful – at least because you know what your interlocutor is saying and you will avoid some unpardonable “gaffes”. Believe me, the language classes you take will pay off!

10.   The right school. In January 2011, a new language school has opened north of the river in Kansas City, MO. The Foreign Language Institute of Kansas City is actually the ONLY full-service language school for adults in the Northland. The location is great and the school offers language instruction at different levels, with native speaker, degreed, certified instructors, in small groups and making use of the latest classroom technology. There is a wide selection of languages to choose from, from Creole to American Sign Language, 14 languages in all. A school like the Foreign Language Institute of Kansas City is certainly another good reason to learn a new language!