why it is ultimately beneficial to have the grasp of an auxiliary language as a tool of global interaction

why it is ultimately beneficial to have the grasp of an auxiliary language as a tool of global interaction

The rise of global travel and interaction across numerous human interests has created the need to feel connected through communication for better comprehension. People are now trying to learn the languages of their hosts to better understanding and cultural exchange. Bilinguals enjoy enhanced mental abilities, career prospects and pedagogical advantages as they preserve their native languages in the process. This paper will analyze the mental, social and educational benefits of American students studying a second language as opposed to sticking to English only. This research will go out to prove why it is ultimately beneficial to have the grasp of an auxiliary language as a tool of global interaction.

Critics have pointed out the lack of a clear line of difference as to the mental abilities of monolinguals and bilinguals. They argue that the cognitive ability of both sets of speakers is more or less similar. Some of them go on to claim a slight edge in thoughtful criticism of subjects by monolinguals, something that lacks in their bilingual counterparts. They also claim that a lot of useful information may be suppressed when the mind is learning a second language, which is not a mean task. However, these claims cannot outweigh the importance and benefits of speaking two languages.

Language being the primary source of interaction between human beings, creates the ultimate connection between two interacting persons. This connection has proved to foster better intercultural understanding, appreciation and exchange of religion, art, history and tradition between people of different cultures. This integration has smothered intercultural conflict and enhanced acceptance. A fundamental linguistic misunderstanding has, in the past, been interpreted by communities regarded as primitive to be gestures of hostility with fatal endings. Studies have shown that learning a particular language makes you want to know more about the source community and even tolerate its practices and norms. This trend is common among students of communications.

During the learning process, especially of a new language, our minds naturally draw comparisons. These comparisons could be so insightful and help in concluding the aspects of our own culture. Such mental acuity leads to better cultural understanding as we learn negative and positive attributes of our culture, and we draw a line. Research has also proved that children who can speak more than one language have an advantage when comprehending information from adults compared to their monolingual partners. They tend to use their bilingual power to create a contextual understanding of messages. However, it remains foggy as to whether such abilities are carried forward to adulthood.

Nelson Mandela, the late African statesman, once quipped, “If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart” This statement cannot be more accurate as proved by early missionaries who had to translate the bible for acceptance by savage locals. Most people feel pleasant and comfortable around you if they find out you are speaking their native language. This advantage can translate to more concrete and beneficial people networks due to enhanced social and cultural understanding.

Learning a second language is an essential catalyst for understanding the technical aspect of your communication. As we learn most first languages intuitively, and through experience and usage, one might fail to learn the logical structures and building blocks for their grammar. We learn grammar, sentence structure, idioms and basic comprehension through observation and continuous exposure to other speakers. However, second languages mean learning a specific grammatical format and set of linguistic rules to have a last grasp of the language. These rules, when used comparatively, can help a person understand their language better and appreciate its linguistic properties hence become a better speaker.

Learning new languages has been proved to come along with a whole set of positive mental adjustments. A new language means coping with and internalizing a unique pattern of communication for everyday use. One has to incorporate new systems of communication, a new understanding of meanings, new vocabulary, different sentence structuring, and even writing format. The brain has to devour this information in addition to what is already in use. This experience boosts brainpower exponentially, improving memory and recall capabilities. Simply put, multilingual people have enhanced comprehensive ability and information retention capacity translating to higher brainpower.

Additionally, learning an additional language gives us a multitasking knack. Despite multitasking being a stressful activity, the comprehension of multiple languages also comes with the advantage of the ease of swinging from one task to another. This flexibility is because, over time, numerous language speakers naturally start thinking about the parameters of different languages and their cultural demands. This acute brain power is also a useful tool for observation. Multilingual people have proved to be better observers of their environments. They also have an intuitive eye for misleading, irrelevant or deceptive information.

Decision making is also a key advantage of learning a second language. Studies have shown that most people make objective decisions when they analyze problems using their second or third language of expression. Freedom from personal and emotional interjections that could cloud essential judgement comes as a result of such objectiveness. Apart from that, multilingual speakers always have to keenly analyze their second language for basic expressions while trying to avoid making mistakes giving them an analytical edge and confident approach to issues. Multilingual people are thus disposed to make clearheaded decisions compared to their monolinguist partners.

A new language makes us enjoy our global navigation expeditions. One of the most disappointing experiences is travelling to a new place without being able to speak to the locals and enjoying their culture with them. Learning another language breaks this barrier. Travelling the world thus becomes a joyful and livid experience coupled with massive cultural exchange and appreciation. Learning a people’s local language naturally excites trust levels meaning they share more with you. Bursting this tourist bubble may open up opportunities to reside or even do business with these people. Additionally, being multilingual gives you access to information and meaning that you would otherwise not know.

Speaking more than one language is the new way to advance your career to the next pedestal. Furthermore, bilingual candidates are proving to edge out their monolingual compatriots for employment berths. Employers are seeking to expand their businesses without the confines of local English speakers hence the sharp increase in demand for employees with proficiency in other languages. Companies give extra employment incentives to employees who can speak to different cultures fluently and influence trade patterns. With over 60 million Americans using languages other than English to communicate in their dwellings, the demand could only rise hence the need to develop multilingual proficiency.

Further still, developing proficiency in a second language has proved to enhance ability in other areas of education. Candidates with competence in a second language have proved better performers in arithmetic, reading comprehension and vocabulary. This improved academic calibre is a result of the enhanced mental faculties of understanding, reason and problem-solving. This observation is a crucial catalyst to many curriculum developers incorporating a mandatory second language in their education systems.

In addition to other numerous benefits, learning a second language carries with it the inculcation of another culture’s way of dealing with people. One can learn and even absorb soft people skills specific to a community. This way, someone could exponentially boost their communication skills for a better transfer of meaning. You could learn a new, better and more respectful way of greeting or starting a conversation that dissolves tension and eliminates bias and mistrust. These seemingly useless cues could be the aggregate determinant of a great communicator. Such communication skills are why people who have travelled the world and interacted with numerous cultures generally come out as great interpersonal communicators.

Bilingualism has remarkable health benefits concerning brain diseases. Records from 200 patients who were diagnosed with Alzheimer’s diseases showed that bilingual patients showed the first symptoms of dementia five years later than their monolingual counterparts. This upper hand is because bilinguals spend most of their life making decisions and jogging their minds across two languages as they juggle the resulting challenges. Therefore, bilinguals are less susceptible to memory loss and confusion associated with Alzheimer’s disease due to sharper mental faculties.

Away from dementia, bilingualism has proven to be a catalyst in the treatment of aphasia. Aphasia is defined by the US national Aphasia association as the impairment o0f the ability to comprehend or use words usually resulting from stroke or brain injury. This condition requires specialized language therapy to aid recovery. Physicians discovered that post-stroke treatment on aphasia patients was highly responsive to bilinguals compared to monolinguals. Doctors quip that when aphasia occurs, they can use the less dominant language to transfer information to the first language hence aiding rehabilitation.

A language is also a tool for dissecting the globe. Learning a new language enables you to see the whole world through different lenses. Most probably, Perceptions developed in your local environment are based on little or no global experience, political influences and propaganda. These biases always leave the normal man with a warped perspective and perception of issues. Language gives you a new tool to travel the world and develop informed viewpoints emanating from real-life experience. Such experience can inspire creativity and decision making in a person. Creativity levels are, therefore, a common characteristic of bilingual and multilingual people.

Cross-cultural integration has become a key factor for economic and technological development. It is also vital for modernization and globalization. The world has been reduced into a global village where people from different backgrounds coexist and transact together. It is advantageous to stay ahead in the integration model via language and culture ipso facto.  According to the Kiplinger Washington Editors report in 1996, in the USA, the Hispanic workforce was to increase by 25 percent by 2010 and the Asian portion by more than half. It also speculated that these numbers would be steadily on the rise on the corporate ladder up to the year 2035.

A lot of people prefer preserving their cultures by taking up one universal language and culture. A sizable number of Canadians and Americans interviewed through questionnaires in the 1990s preferred a multicultural approach to a monolinguist system. They posed that racist slurs and conduct coupled with racial prejudice, would be minimized in their proposed set up, thereby giving equal opportunities to all. This survey backed the long-standing argument that multicultural settings would raise children who are less stereotypical in judgement hence a culturally inclusive society. These cultures can only be encouraged and integrated through teaching and learning sets of foreign languages in American schools.

Finally, modern technological warfare has posed a wide range of security threats to established systems like the USA. We can control such safety issues when we harmonize the languages of communication by learning the language of the enemy. It would be easier to decode threats to national security. Currently, the USA security apparatus are encouraging their recruits to learn a second language as a mode of curbing foreign threats. These bilingual of multilingual operatives could also be efficient in operations that would send them out of the country into other cultures. Any jurisdiction cannot assume this cutting edge with a commitment to keep its citizens safe.

The world is a globalizing arena with financial, health, chemical, technological, and other human contact systems requiring multilingual approaches. The tirade of evidence supporting the learning of other languages, in addition to a primary language, suggests the imminent gross benefits of such a move to a nation. However, suggesting bilingualism should go beyond empty rhetoric into putting into place specific measures and mechanisms to ensure young Americans grow up in appreciation of other cultures and thus strive to integrate into it. Such developments will coincidentally run in tandem with the UNESCOs ramification and encouragement of cultural diversity in all aspects of human interaction.