The English language is pretty common all over the world,
and it’s worked well for you so far when communicating in daily life. But did
you know that there are more people on Earth that speak Chinese dialects and
Spanish than English? And did you also know that by the end of the 21st
century, researchers expect 90 percent of the 7,000 languages currently heard
throughout the world to be gone or on their way to extinction? Might be time to
think about adding another language to that resume, then.
Being bilingual makes you smarter – really! Psychologists
found a few years ago that bilingual kids can solve more mental puzzles than
monolinguals. Because if you know two languages, you’re constantly translating
and analyzing situations in your head to figure out which language you should
be using, and that makes you better at things like problem solving and
concentrating for long periods of time. Another bonus is that you won’t get
Alzheimer’s or dementia when you’re older. If you’re constantly making your
brain work by using more than one language, it’ll keep it in tip-top shape.
Certain languages are gonna be more useful to you in the
long run, and others are gonna be easier to pick up. If you’re lookin’ for
something that’ll help you succeed in the future, go for Chinese, Hindu-Urdu,
Spanish, or Arabic. They’re gonna be the most common by the time the year 2050
rolls around (or at least, that’s what researchers have predicted). But the
easiest ones for an English-speaker to pick up are Dutch, French, Norwegian,
Spanish, and Italian. To get a general professional proficiency in one of those,
it should take you about 22 to 24 weeks, depending on how intense your study
is. Then the toughest tongues to get the hang of are Arabic, Chinese, Japanese,
and Korean. Each of those will probably cost you about 88 weeks of learning, so
you’ll need a li’l extra patience if you’ve got your heart set on one.
Ready, Set, Go!
Besides signing up for classes in a new language, there are
a few things you can do to work towards being bilingual. First, you can check
at your local library to see if they offer a free online language program, like
Rosetta Stone or Mango Complete, for their members. There are also websites,
that have free lessons on different languages. And once you start getting
comfortable with your new language, you can check out and mylanguagexchange.com,
which partners you with a native speaker so that you can learn their language
and they can learn yours.
To get more stats on
who speaks what in the world, check this out.
Have you ever thought about learning a new language? Which one? Blog about it,
BY CARRIE RUPPERT ON 11/21/2012 12:00:00 AM
POSTED IN school, studying secrets, In the News