Do You, Parlez-Vous? · by Andrew Scotchmer

As many of you may know, my wife is expecting our first child in February. Needless to say her parents, who live in Japan, are really excited at the news and the prospect of being grandparents for a second time (the first being through their son who has a beautiful boy aged 3 years).

Such is their excitement, they want to visit next summer, and there in lies the problem: I don’t speak that much Japanese and they don’t speak that much English! Or so I thought…

In readiness for their trip, they’ve began teaching themselves English and last week, to my great surprise and shock, my father-in-law phoned and asked to speak with me. Well, was I left feeling completely embarrassed! I’m not afraid to say my self esteem bombed to an all-time low at my total lack of even basic conversational Japanese, and although his English was far from fluent, he could talk to me more in my language that I could in his!

That got me thinking. As a native English speaker I am completely lazy when it comes to learning another language. English is the most dominant language in the world, and the largest spoken language after Mandarin Chinese. As such, I just expect everyone knows the basics of my language and will understand me when I speak. How arrogant is that!
So I’ve decided to spend the next year learning Japanese and since making that decision I’ve actually learned that speaking another language has many other benefits attached to it. Besides that is, being able to speak to one’s in-laws.

For a starter, being able to speak another language does wonders for building self confidence. If you suffer from low self esteem and have little confidence, learning a language can really help. As learning a language is a gradual step-by-step process, it’s easy to measure your progress and take pride in that. Such pride then boosts your self esteem and self image.

Learning a language also helps improve your memory and your problem solving skills. With each new thing you learn you need to commit it to memory. The more you use your memory the better it becomes. There are also countless grammatical problems to overcome as learning a new languages usually means learning new sentence structures .

Studies have shown that children who learn a language have greater cognitive ability. They also tend to be more creative, and have advanced social skills. Guess what - The same is true for late learners also.
Believe it or not, learning a foreign language also helps you in relationships. If you are bilingual, or even learning a language, the opposite sex find you more attractive.

You can also get more from your holidays if you speak the language of the country you visit, even if it’s just basic “tourist speak.” Locals also are more helpful and friendlier towards you and really appreciate the trouble you took to learn even the basic phrases. Learning a language also helps you become more receptive to different cultures and ways of living.

Studying another language helps you become more proficient in your own. As you begin learning about different grammatical structures you also begin learning about the structure and sentence formation of your own language. This can be a big help in your work life and career potential, especially if it include writing reports.

Finally, learning a language boosts your income. A recent study has shown that people who can speak, or who are learning a new language generally get paid more or are less likely to be refused a pay rise. This is especially true if your company does a lot of overseas trade and the language you are learning is the native language of one of those countries. Employees who can speak another language are perceived as being of greater value to the company.

So why not join me over the next twelve months and choose yourself a language to learn. Maybe tie it into next year’s holiday so that you will be able to communicate with confidence when you go. Even if you are not planning to travel abroad, just being able to speak another tongue can help you improve in so other many other ways that it should become one of our regular self improvement techniques towards a better life.

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At Complete Kaizen