Soo….
You speak a language, just the 1, makes sense. Why bother with another language?
I mean seriously, with all of the technology out now, who needs to speak more than their mother tongue. I could point my phone camera at a sign and it would translate it for me. I could even leave my phone on a table and it would translate, aloud, what someone is saying to me. Brilliant.
Sure, that may be true and be enough for holidays, but with more and more people travelling, personally or for work, and even emigrating, the world is becoming a much smaller place.
Let me add a local point, especially for those with the English mother tongue. How many more jobs could you get if you spoke a second language, even at a basic conversation level. I would be willing to bet it doubles, yes DOUBLES.
“But that’s absurd” I hear you cry. …Why?
How many times have you been at an interview and not got the job despite having the exact same skills as everyone else. It comes down to personality and other “irrelevant” skills at that point. A language will be right at the top of the list even if there is no need for one.
…Why?
It shows you not only have a very difficult skill to attain but have a more extroverted personality with, being able to speak to people who don’t know your mother language, or perhaps struggle with it. You would be a perfect fit for any “human” based companies where you talk to clients or even internal staff members as someone who understands and has an interest in other people and cultures. It would put you in good standing as a leader or manager and not just “another grunt”.
Now, that might not be true for you, but that’s what it looks like on a CV, …just saying…
Anyway, on the more advanced side, a language shows that you have a very adaptive mind.
Languages are stranger than you think. There is plenty of research that shows how drastically your brain chemistry alters in comparison to a monolingual. You form new connection to the same ideas you already hold.
As a side note, what do I mean by ideas?
If I said the word "Book", you instantly know what I mean, but why? The word has an association in your brain to your senses. That's why you get a feeling of nostalgia when you see or smell certain things. An old book smell could bring back a time of reading as a child or seeing a pebble reminds you of a holiday, these examples are more drastic associations of the idea you have of that specific thing, but back to words. Standard words like: dog, book, ocean, tree, will likely instantly give an image in your mind, not necessarily clear but you have a significant understanding of what it means.
That is where languages make things really interesting….
Take someone who speaks a Germanic language, such a English, and an Asian language, like Japanese. The way these languages function are so drastically different that your brain literally works differently when thinking in 1 language to another. This is down to the different pathways formed within your brain to be able to link different ideas in your mind.
Example:
English: I went shopping yesterday.
Japanese: 私は昨日買い物に行ってきまし
Romaji : Watashi wa kino kaimono ni ittekimashita.
The Japanese literal translation would be along the lines of:
I yesterday shopping went. With shopp’ing‘ and ‘went‘ being muddled together at the end. Logically, Japanese is a ‘simple-ish’ language to grasp, with specific rules for each thing.
to go (present/future)
(行きます)ikimasu
to do
(します)shimasu
not go (negative)
(行きません)ikimasen
not do
(しません) shimasen
went (past)
(行きました)ikimashita
did
(しました)shimashita
These are just some examples, how logical it is despite being complex. Basically, each word is the same, but a different ending changes the tense.
The syntax of the Germanic languages works completely differently to the Asian languages. The ideas people have in the mind for each word will be similar, but how they are connected to each other will be different.
This leads to a different way of thinking, and potentially, even a different personality depending on the language you use at that time.
This means that problems could be solved much more efficiently by a multilingual due to their brains being able to match similar ideas in different ways.
Think outside of your language limited box.
2 Languages means “3” times the amount of people
What?….How?……
Now, obviously this number is subjective. Logically, if you speak 1 language you can speak to anyone who speaks your mother tongue, yes? Therefore, speaking 2 languages means you can speak to twice the amount of people right, everyone who speaks either of the two languages you can, your mother tongue and their’s, following me?
Well, what about other multilinguals. Around 70% of the global populous are some degree of multilingual.
Hypothetically, let’s say you can speak English and Japanese. You can speak to someone who speaks either English or Japanese, yes? Including those who speak different combinations of languages. You can’t just converse with English and Japanese people, you could speak to anyone who knows either language, follow? What if you met a person from Brazil who speaks Portuguese and Japanese. This may seem fairly obvious but expand it a little more. You and your new friend become a translator for anyone who speaks English or Portuguese too, by using your common language, Japanese.
Now this might sound a little drastic but it goes to show just how wide your world can grow by simply knowing another language.
Sure, languages are hard at first, but once you understand the logic behind them you can progress faster and faster as you are able to use it more and more. Watching movies, talking to new people, playing games. Not only do they allow you to do these things in other languages but expand the amount you can do; new games, new shows, new people.
The world is a much smaller place and it is getting smaller. You are far more likely to meet someone who doesn’t speak your language than ever before with everyone being able to explore everywhere.
Or are you?…..
With around 65%-75% of the global population being multilingual, monolinguals are a “dying breed”, you could even argue inferior, if you want to start getting cynical. You are less adaptive, more isolated, and with most businesses being international you would be unable to even have a conversation with a large proportion of those you “work with”.
Hmm, perhaps I should brush up on my languages.
Anyway, what do you think?
Am I being too harsh on monolinguals?
Are languages boring and pointless with technological developments?
Will Elon’s ‘neuralink‘ brain chip mean you won’t even have to speak?
Any questions or answers, please, Leave a Q!