4 Reasons that Being Bilingual is a Great Skill to Have

Speaking more than just your native tongue is becoming more and more popular. Even people that never considered becoming bilingual are second guessing this choice. Being bilingual is one of the greatest decisions that a person can make because it will become an attribute in both their personal and professional lives. Not only does speaking more than one language help you communicate with more people, it also affords you more opportunities in life. Still wondering if learning a second language is right for you? Here are just some of the reasons why this is one of the best skills that a person can have.

• You will be preventing mental diseases

It has been proven by science that speaking multiple languages can reduce the possibility of developing Alzheimer’s. At the very least, a good way to delay it. This is due to the continued stimulation of the brain. Memorizing different words, verb tenses and pronunciations is a challenge for our brains and the more idioms we speak, the better trained our brains will be.

• A great skill to break barriers

Being bilingual will allow you to have nice conversations with people from other countries. English is considered the universal language and is spoken worldwide, so it is definitely an important one to know. Spanish, French and Chinese are popular second languages that many native English speakers choose to learn. Once you dominate more than one language, it is so much easier to go around the world, without the fear of not being understood.

• It will give you a different point of view about other cultures

Learning more than one language will give you the capacity to understand other cultures, learn new customs and have a wider perspective of what is out there. Back in the days, doing or even thinking about something like this used to scare a great part of society. Now, people want to go out and explore and this is much easier if you are multilingual. We have many options to pick from when it comes to choosing a way to learn a new language. We can use new technologies to learn at our own pace, immerse ourselves in another culture or go to class with professional teachers and possibly earn a degree, which leads us to our last and more important point.

• Better education and job opportunities

Being bilingual is definitely a great advantage to have over other people. Even at the preschool and kindergarten levels, it has been shown that children who speak more than one language have better memory and study skills than kids that do not. This only increases over time and by the time these kids become young adults, they will have better education opportunities. They might even have the opportunity to work outside of their own country and earn a higher salary. Similarly, job opportunities are better when you have bi or multilingual skills. You can find better jobs in or out the field you have a degree in. There are many companies like lighthouseonline that look for these type of employees to help them provide quality translation services to other companies. These types of services  are very popular with multinational companies and typically pay very well.