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Why It Is Useful To Be Multilingual

Written in: Grade 8 | Year: 2009

Imagine this - You come to school Monday morning and have a typical conversation with a group of friends.

“Hi”
“Oh, hey!”
“Did you see that movie last night?”
“No, I had to study!”

Or what about this conversation?

“Bonjour”
“Oh, salut!”
“As-tu vu ce film hier soir?”
“Non, j’ai dû etudier!”

Or this conversation?

“Привет”
“О, привет!”
“Как тебе вчерашний фильм?”
“Я его не видела, я училась!”

I’m sure that now you are all thinking “What in the world did she just say?” The truth is, that is the exact same conversation in three different languages. Good morning/afternoon teachers and fellow students. You may have already guessed that I’m doing my speech on languages, but that is not all. I’m going to explain what it truly means to be multilingual

First of all, what is a language? Well, languages are ways to communicate, tools for transferring information and the most common way to express your thoughts and ideas. They have been around for almost as long as human life existed. At first, people created words to represent something, then the words were spoken and changed until they were finally written down. Words were exchanged between cultures and modified until at last, people were pleased with them.

Now try to imagine this - There are about 4000 different languages, each containing about a quarter of a million words. That’s about a billion words to learn! Although it’s impossible to learn all those languages, knowing a few of the U. N. languages is already considered a great accomplishment.

Speaking of which, what are those? Well, they’re the six languages that are considered the most important to learn. These are called the International or United Nations languages. They are English, French, Russian, Spanish, Chinese and Arabian. Although Chinese is spoken by the most people, French and English are tied for first place in being known by the most countries.

Now here is something that will surprise you. About 25% of all people are multilingual! So why put all that time and energy towards learning a new language? The answer is simple. Speaking more than one language has many benefits, especially in a bilingual country. Here in Canada, about 78% of the people speak English while the other 22% speak French, but knowing both languages opens many doors for you. Many high paying jobs such as politics or government paid work require you to know both languages in order to talk to people from all over Canada.

Although it’s really hard to learn a new language, trust me, it’s worth it. Knowing languages opens a whole world of opportunities during globalization, which is happening right now. Globalization is the merging of countries towards free trade and the beginning of large businesses. If you’re multilingual, you have many opportunities that include international trade. This should intrigue you because international trade is one of the highest paying jobs in the world! Who wouldn’t want to earn up to a million dollars a year? I know I would!

Being multilingual not only has an effect on your opportunities, but also on your mind! A British study shows that learning languages alters the brain. When you learn a new language, a part of your brain called grey matter becomes dense. This helps you process information more easily. It’s especially healthy for kids to learn languages because their grey matter becomes dense at an earlier stage. Therefore they have more advanced brains.

By now you must be thinking that learning languages is great since it has so many benefits, but it isn’t as easy as you might think. When I first came to Canada, I didn’t know a single word in English! It gets pretty frustrating when people are talking, but you have no idea what they are saying. It took me about two years before I could fluently speak in English, but even now I’m still learning.

So, if you are thinking about traveling, getting an education in a different country or earning a million dollars, learning a new language is the way to go. “Merci beaucoup pour vos…” no, no, not that one. “Cпасибо за ваше внимание...” no, not that one either. One last tip, try to use the right language to avoid embarrassing situations such as this one. Thank you.