In today’s globalised world, there is a huge demand for languages upon employment and even to get into high schools. Thanks to the addition technology, there are many tools to learn languages. One of them is Babbel, a language learning app, available on Google Play and the App Store, which you can use to learn 13 languages.
Languages around the world high in demand
- French
French is widely used in diplomacy and it is spoken across thirty countries worldwide. It is a language high in demand for both language learners as well as companies looking to hire new employees with French language skills. It’s important to learn at least a couple French phrases for business and diplomacy purposes.
- Mandarin Chinese
Mandarin is the most widely spoken language in the world. If you want to get an international job, work for a company where you will be interacting with international partners, clients, or colleagues, or do business abroad, it is a language that is particularly beneficial to know.
- Spanish
If you are in, would like to be, or plan to be in the United States, English is not enough to ensure you can interact with everyone. Spanish is another highly spoken language in the States as well as in South America, Europe, and Africa. Learning Spanish also opens doors to learning the other Romance languages, including French and Italian and makes it easier.
While these are the languages highest in demand around the world, it is important to consider why you want or would be interested in helping your child to learn another language. If the native tongue of your country is followed by another language, that second language might be the best to learn. Or if you want to set your child to learn multiple languages, learning one of the Romance languages can be beneficial. If you consider business opportunities or having a unique skill on your resume, learning Mandarin is a highly beneficial skill to learn. Or perhaps you want your child to have a greater connection to their heritage and learning another language can help them have that.
Once you hone in on the motivation, it’s important to consider this:
It’s easier to learn languages while young
While you can certainly learn a language at any age, it is easier to learn those languages while young. When you are young, you are already learning so many things that the addition of another language (or two!) is ‘just one more thing’ to learn in a child’s mind. So the sooner you get your child learning another language, the greater they will benefit from language learning and have it be a more natural skill. Many people who grow up bilingual or multilingual say that it is as if they switch to using different parts of their brains. Different languages can also beautifully enhance parts of one’s personality that may be expressed differently in another language, and the more practice that your child has with this, the better!
There are numerous benefits of learning a language at a young age, including:
- The creation of job opportunities later in life.
- Bilingual and trilingual kids often have higher test scores, as well as greater creative thinking and problem solving skills.
- Learning a language also leads to better communication skills in life, both in terms of just knowing more than one language but also having the resources and capacity to pull from the background of more than one language to connect and better understand other people.
- Knowing languages boosts awareness, cross-cultural understanding, and can connect kids to their heritage.
Studies prove that kids learning languages when they are young can help them throughout their entire life and are likelier to have a more successful career. Considering the tools available and the benefits your kids will gain from learning another language or two, you should enrol your kids in language courses today. They will thank you later for it! Since traditional methods aren’t required to learn a language, you have options to find what learning environment works best for your child and what you can manage.
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