Benefits of Bilingualism?

Question

I have heard people on here comment that they would NEVER learn another language. And, others say they specifically will never learn Spanish. This is a great article that explains what business fields search for which languages, and, explains the obvious reasons for employers to seek bilingual employees. Truthfully, I was surprised that Spanish wasn't the most sought after language professionally. Will this affect your learning a second language- or at least not see it as "unpatriotic" to speak another language?

http://spotlight.encarta.msn.com/Features/encnet_Departments_AdultLearning_default_article_PayRaiseSecondLang.html?GT1=10487

Personally, I am also bilingual (Spanish) and use it daily on a professional basis. I see huge benefits in it, also.

Answer 1

Do you know that most Europeans speak several languages? Sometimes as many as 8 or 10 fluently. And it has hardly destroyed their society.

With todays ability to connect world wide I think it is time that American's get off their nose in the air high horses and learn second even third languages.

It is not unpatriotic to learn a second or even third language. It broadens your horizons and gives you more stability as a hireable commodity.

Answer 2

The problem with bilingualism is it is often used to promote Spanish at the expense of English. I know that bilingualism is any two languages, but the debate in the USA is whether Spanish should be treated as a equal to English. I live in Miami and I have watched over the last fifty years how we have been gone from a English speaking city to a city that Spanish is the language of most, and if English is spoken at all, it is broken at best. So I can speak to the issue of what happens when some claim they want bilingualism

Answer 3

Being bilingual and bi/cultural has been a great help to me in my employment, Social worker, Drug counselor, Veteran benefits counselor etc, .Spanish used in business will always be helpful for employment in America, but also Chinese, Japanese and other markets that opens as a result of globalization. America is one of the few countries in the world, that dose not embrace bilingualism. I am retired and live in Thailand 4 months each year, I have tried to learn Thai ,But it is a tonal Language, a word can have 5 different meanings depending on the tone that is used, I am hearing impaired and can not hear the different tones, So my hopes of being Tri lingual will not be realized.

Answer 4

I started learning languages in Mexico when I was about 5 years old. It was just part of the curriculum in my school. I always liked them and then later on I went on to learn German and French, just for fun. It enriched my life in so many ways. Traveling and being able to speak to people in their own language gave me a unique window into these people's lives, their countries and their culture. I've lived in Germany and Canada and traveled other countries around Europe. I really don't know what learning another language may have to do with being unpatriotic. It's mainly for your own personal benefit that you do that! I'm bringing up my kids bilingual English-Spanish (already wondering when it will be o.k. to bring in a third language, they are only 3 years old an 8 months old). If I had the time and the brains I would learn another 20 languages! I just love it so much.

Bilingualism is destructive to a society??? Please explain how Luxembourg (3 languages) , Belgium (3), Finland (2) Switzerland (4) Canada (2) aren't crumbling apart. Not to mention all different dialects that are spoken in many countries as well.

Answer 5

I'm not sure if I am supposed to answer this question? But the benefits of knowing more than 1 language are very obvious.

We use language to communicate so clearly if we are good at knowing the language and how to use it to understand other people and for them to understand us than we can communicate better.

If this is true for knowing any language than it is true for knowing more languages if you want to communicate better. You can get very good at knowing your native language but why stop there?

Of course you can communicate with more people if you know more than one language. If you learn a 2nd language you can communicate better with people who speak that language even if they also speak your native language because you have more ways to say things. And even if you are not perfect in the 2nd language you usually can still communicate well in it even if you are discussing complex concepts.

And I can say that learning other languages really helps you understand your 1st language better.

Knowing another language of course does not hurt you for getting a good job. But to be practical here knowing another language helps you for building a professional career or being in business.

If you don't have the time for it or feel that the time is better spent on something else I can't argue with you..but just be sure that you thought it through for what your time is worth and what you are getting and missing.

Answer 6

I think it's wonderful that other people don't want to learn other languages. I'm fluent in 3 languages and have working knowledge of two others. With these people out of the way it clears the road for me to get a number of jobs that they will not be qualified for.

The idea that it is unpatriotic to speak a foreign language is probably very common amongst people that will not be very successful in the world and will have have a career in a major US city, or working in foreign policy. But that's fine with me. I'm not sure I would want those people invading cities like NY, DC, or SF.

You could expect more people to learn Mandarin, Cantonese, and Arabic over the next decade as both China and the Arab countries are going to be major players in the coming years.

Edit: To the person who says that bilingualism is destructive to a society, I'm sure they can explain how Swizterland, which has 3 official languages, Belgium which has 2, China which has 2, and any number of other countries are getting along.

Answer 7

I doubt he means that we should all learn Spanish so that we can cater to Spanish speaking immigrants so you don't have to worry about that. Americans always assumes that when people say that it would benefit them to learn another language most automatically say "I don't feel that I need to because immigrants should know English when they come to this country and we shouldn't have to cater to them". Who said that learning another language is only useful for catering to immigrants? I agree with everything he said. BTW I'm American but I speak Spanish and there are a lot of things I can do with that like become a translator, travel to Spanish speaking countries, become a Spanish teacher etc... none of that involves catering to immigrants. EDIT: I doubt that he thinks we should be just as multilingual as Europeans, that's not possible because of what you have already mentioned. In that case we would only know Spanish and English (maybe French because of Canada but not really). Europeans have easy acces to native speakers of pretty much all major European languages.

Answer 8

I think the bilingual people will have more opportunities to succeed than the ones who only speak only one language. We will see it in this new generation. There are old americans with old ideas about to keep the english as the only language.

I am bilingual. I speak english and mexican spanish. When I have customers from Colombia, Venezuela, Caribean countries I speak in their spanish terms. That's a good benefit because the spanish has variations.

Answer 9

I am reading-wise essentially bilingual in English and German, and am wanting to learn one or two more after I master German, and yes, I can't deny that being bilingual is very useful.

However, being a linguophile, I have learned that forced or coerced acceptance of a language (as Spanish-speakers have tried to do to us in the US) only breeds contempt and fear of that language.

In short, we need to be more considerate of people who may not have the time or mental capacity to learn a second language, and who only want to be able to feed and support their families with a job in the national language (which for the US is essentially English).

Answer 10

I speak three languages, Spanish being one of them, and I think that anyone who says that they would never learn another language, must be a very close minded person. With so many reasons to learn to speak another language, (Job opportunities, intelligence, vacations, communication, seeing things from others perspectives.) What reasons are there not too? And to all that say they would never learn another language, you would end up being just like the immigrants that you hate if you ever went to another country. To proud to learn the language of where they are.