The Power of Language - Why You Should Learn Another Tongue
by Michael Holmes
When English people go abroad and struggle to be understood, it seems customary to simply say the same thing a little bit louder. Still struggling? Try shouting the same thing again. No, it doesn't work. It seems as though we as a nation expect to be understood wherever we are in the world. The fact that English is one of the most widely-spoken languages too breeds a laziness on our part not to bother learning any other languages. We can always get by with our trusty handbook, which opens many doors to conversations such as Where is the toilet? or How much for a beer?. It seems that as long as we know the important stuff, we can enjoy our holidays safe in the knowledge that we will somehow be understood by the locals. Modern society is putting paid to this age-old English way, by giving us no excuses not to learn to speak in another tongue. The rise of technology in the past ten years alone has made it so easy to communicate with so many other countries almost instantly that it now seems silly to expect foreigners to speak in English.
First let's look at the most popular languages spoken across the world. Rather unsurprisingly, the Chinese language Mandarin is spoken by the most people, with over 900 million people citing it as their native language. It may appear only important to know if you live in China, but with so many global businesses being based in, or having offices in and around Hong Kong and China, it can be useful for anyone working in the world of commerce to at least speak conversational Mandarin. With an entirely new alphabet and writing style to learn, Mandarin can be a bit of a challenge but with the world's expecations that China will be the next business superpower of the world, it will be a valuable asset to multi-national companies to have some Mandarin-speaking employees.
Also, Arabic countries have come to the fore as far as business and tourism goes, so knowing how to speak or write in Arabic will help you in many aspects of your working life. Perhaps you are looking to change your job to something based in Dubai but are worried you will not be able to settle in a country that may be vastly different from you own; learning the local language will help you feel accepted and at home in your new country of residence.
European languages are slightly easier to learn as they are based on ancient Latin as is English. You will find many similarities between Spanish, French and Italian making it relatively simple to grasp all three of them provided you are fluent in just one. Spanish would be the popular choice as far as European languages are concerned as it is spoken by nearly 400 million people worldwide from Spain to Mexico and from South America to as far east as the Phillipines. While there are variations in accent, pronunciation and colloquialisms, if you can speak traditional Spanish you will most certainly be able to communicate and be understood in any one of the twenty-one sovereign states that have Spanish as their official language.
Business owners and employees alike can also benefit from being <a target="_blank" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multilingualism">bi-lingual</a> as there are so many English people working abroad and also so many foreigners working in England. For instance, there are many Polish people working in jobs such as contracting or landscaping so if you own a business specialising in these things, it can really help bring you and you workers together if you can at least communicate the basics. Equally if you are looking to work abroad, you will find it much easier to find work if you know the local language, people will be more willing to give you a chance as you have shown dedication to the job by learning how to communicate properly with your employers too. It is useful to any profession. For instance, doctors working in England nowadays may be faced with patients who speak little English which can make it very difficult to diagnose them, it can also be quite dangerous to prescribe medication to someone who does not understand you. Learning basic medical terms in a variety of languages will make both the doctor and patient's life easier.
In today's society it seems selfish not to bother learning a new language, even if it just the basics. Also, if you start teaching yourself something new, there will be so many opportunities to practice your chosen language even locally given the huge diversity of cultures living in England today. Soon you will not need to struggle on holiday and you can impress you friends and family with your newfound language skills.
We hope we've managed to inspire you to start learning a new language or at least see and appreciate the many long term and immediate benefits. <a href="http://tinyurl.com/c7navu6">LanguageNow</a> offer some basic courses, you can learn more by clicking through.
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New Unique Article!
Title: The Power of Language - Why You Should Learn Another Tongue
Author: Michael Holmes
Email: info@seogemini.com
Keywords: interpretation, translation, professional translation,learning a language, hobbies, work,business, language, languages
Word Count: 802
Category: Hobbies
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