26th January is celebrated as the Republic Day in India. It’s a country where 22 languages are spoken. Most Indians speak a minimum of 2 languages and a vast number of people are also polyglot. Today we will look at 9 reasons why being a polyglot is your superpower!
1. Gateway to a new culture
Learning a new language opens the doors to a new culture, its history, art and music. Isn’t it amazing when you get to watch your favourite shows without subtitles to constantly distract you. *silently hints at Kdramas* ;)
2. Enhances Communication Skills
It is a great way to build your communication skills as it exposes you to speaking with people from multiple cultures.
3. Boost Confidence
Knowing the language of a place you are traveling to is an asset by itself. It is a confidence booster and eases you off the travel anxieties.One of my personal experiences is that knowing the local language lets me bond better with the locals. It made them comfortable to share their culture and experiences more openly.
4. Makes you an open-minded person
It also makes you an open minded person. It makes you open to understand different perspectives while working in a team setup and broadens one's view towards life.
5. Improves Adaptability
One of the most important skills to have today is to be adaptive to changing environments since we live in such a dynamic world. In a work environment for example, knowing multiple languages helps to connect with people from various cultures and build trust and friendship with them.
6. Increases your problem-solving ability
When you understand multiple languages, you also tend to think in that language. What happens then is that when you do not re-collect a word from one language your brain automatically thinks of an alternate word in a different language.
This subconsciously improves your brains’s problem solving ability as it makes you identify multiple solutions to a single problem.
7. Sharpens your memory
Studies have shown that in the long run it also delays the diseases/conditions like dementia or Alzheimer’s.
8. Increases the grey matter
Studies have also shown that it also improves your Cognitive abilities and increases the gray matter in our brains.
9. Makes you appreciate all the cultures
As you keep learning, you will come across a few common words which may or may not have the same meaning in the language. However, this makes you realise that even though we all may belong to different cultures, they are always a few commonalities that tie us all together.
I understand 7 languages including English, Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, Marathi, Konkani and Bengali. I admitI ’m not fluent in all the languages but can definitely make sense of it .My goal is to learn a dozen languages in the due course of time. I’m currently learning French on Duolingo. I currently have a 275-day streak! This has been such a fun experience.
It’s never too late to learn a new language. The sooner you learn the faster you will reap its benefits. I hope you found this helpful. Which language are you learning? I would love to hear from you in the comments section below.
Very well written.