Over time, the need to know the languages of another commonwealth across borders has gained more importance, thus enabling the study of the development of primitive languages, which originated, over time, other languages, idioms, and dialects.
We live in a world where we can travel to different countries, one of the main differences between them is their language. Therefore, each country has developed its language model.
As all these countries have a lot to offer, learning the most common languages was considered essential to enable communication between them and their relationships.
While you might think English is the foreign language that most of us know, there are only 350+ million English speakers globally.
The top 3 languages spoken globally are Mandarin, French, and Spanish. French is the official language of 29 countries globally, and Spanish is the second most spoken language globally (third on the internet). So even though there are around 918 million Mandarin speakers globally, there are more speakers in Asian countries than in any other part of the world.
Knowing a foreign language and being sophisticated and elegant also opens doors to your professional, cultural, and communicational expansion. In the professional area, this learning brings opportunities for business, technologies, and relationships with different regions of the global industry.
Learning languages also gives you the chance to experience different cultures around the world; indeed, it also improves your ability to communicate and connect with others, making you a better communicator while increasing the power of your brain.
Learning foreign languages is also a way of preserving the language. The human being is a true lover of tourism; being fluent in the language of travel destinations makes your adventure a more exciting and enjoyable experience.
The brain’s relationship with foreign language learning
Learning foreign languages may or may not be difficult; it depends on the learner and the degree of difficulty of the languages. There are more accessible and more complex languages.
The brain is the central computer of the human body, where the processing of general information about the body and its environment takes place. It is responsible for our thinking, perception, movements, judgment, and language. It is the key to learning.
This is a complexly constituted organ, it has several organelles, and they all cooperate to achieve the same objective: the orientation and development of the human being.
It is like a muscle, the earlier it is worked and the more active it is, the stronger it will be, improving physical conditioning and ensuring a healthier life.
This is how the brain works with foreign languages, so the sooner they are introduced, the better. Likewise, the sooner it absorbs the knowledge, the better the understanding and perception of the content.
What is the best time to learn foreign languages?
One can introduce new languages at any stage of life, whether children or older, but a critical factor is the best time to teach them; the best time to start learning languages besides the native language. This factor is directly related to the processing capacity and capture of linguistic data.
Early age is perfect for introducing foreign languages. At this stage of life, the brain assimilates all the particularities and structures of the tongue more efficiently; in this way, the mastery over the foreign language will be greater, improving the fluency of the language.
In addition, learning new languages at an early age is beneficial because of the memory capacity. Younger people have a more consistent and faster storage process and can store a good amount of data, thus conserving grammar and vocabulary more efficiently. This also helps the progress of learning and mastery of the language. As a result, minors can learn languages more quickly and efficiently than the elders.
The ability to process information or transform linguistic data into knowledge is better. I’m not saying that older people do not have this ability, but the fact is that the process is slower and the ability to store information is more inhibited.
Three reasons why you should introduce foreign languages to your children at an early age:
1. Boost their confidence
Research has stated that children’s brain is like a sponge; they grasp things quickly and remember them for a longer time. So, as younger genes are still learning things, learning a second language will not only boost their confidence but also helps them to gain more confidence.
2. Early they learn, they will sound like a native speaker.
Kids always mimic what they hear; thus, in addition to learning faster, they try to speak as they listen.
3. Kids do not hesitate to make mistakes.
As we grow older, we get scared to make mistakes; thus, we can’t learn anything quickly. But, on the other hand, kids don’t hesitate to make mistakes as they know; therefore, they learn faster.
4. Kid’s brain absorbs new things easily
Learning foreign languages becomes more difficult with age advancing. Therefore, introducing them at a young age guarantees a better adaptation and speech performance.
Final Thoughts
Learning foreign languages has many benefits. It opens the door to other exciting cultures, making it possible to communicate with people from different horizons, promoting intercommunication, an essential step towards global unification.
Learning a foreign language at an early age helps the children improve their communication ability, cultural awareness, and cognitive development.
For these and more reasons, introducing foreign languages at an early age will allow the individual to have a more advanced level in the language.
It is never too late to introduce your kids to a second language.
It’s an extra skill for your pocket.
What do you think about this? Comment below.
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This post was previously published on medium.com.
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Photo credit: Jonathan Borba on Unsplash