Education
5 Reasons To Study A Foreign Language by Marie-Claire Smith
[Jan 11, 2008]
Many schools or universities require the study of a foreign language. Before you start resenting the very idea of it, consider that it could be to your advantage for you to study and master a foreign language. Make no mistake about it: the whole world does NOT speak English. For anyone who has travelled to anywhere but the very largest of the world's capitals, local people still primarily speak the local language and not English. To speak with them, the only way to do so will be to learn their language.
Here are 5 reasons to why you should study a foreign language:
1. Meet new friends: Learning a foreign language opens up the door to your getting to know more people and expanding your social network. If you are studying a language such as Spanish, Portuguese, or Chinese that is spoken by a large percentage of the population, you will be literally potentially tapping into a communication network with hundreds of millions of people that was previously off limits to you. If you are studying a less popular language, just think how much more valuable you will be since there are fewer foreign speakers of it.
2. Become a more globally-viable businessperson: In the world of business, communication is king. It does not matter how well you can program a computer, do accounting, or design new products: if you cannot communicate with other people, you will not find the success you deserve in the business world.