Why studying a foreign language is worthwhile

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Why studying a foreign language is worthwhile
English is one of the languages with the most speakers in the world and global businesses use English as the primary language in their operations. English is the most widely used language on the internet, in diplomatic relations between countries and in economic and business world. It was reported that by 2011 English had more than nine hundred million speakers globally four million of whom were native speakers (Helling n.p). The world is increasingly interconnected and people’s need to communicate with others is increasing as well. Other mega languages such as French and Chinese enjoy populous speakers alongside English and there is need for people to learn them for effective socioeconomic interactions. Learning a foreign language is important because it has economic, social, health and intellectual benefits to the learner.
One reason why learning foreign languages is important is the fact that there are many mega languages besides English. Around seventy five million people around the world speak each of the mega language. Such languages include Spanish, Arabic, French and mandarin Chinese among others. It is also reported that Mandarin Chinese outdoes English as the language with the most speakers in the world. Mandarin Chinese speakers in the world are twice the number of native and non-native speakers in the world. Learning some of these mega languages becomes important for English speakers wishing to travel to countries where such languages are spoken. This is despite notions that English has a significantly big global reach other languages such as Chinese and Russian, and Indian, Arabic and Spanish have a heavy online presence and in the film industry respectively. The internet is a very important source of information and English speakers are only able to enjoy the benefits of all the available information when they take up foreign languages (Pereltsvaig n.p).
A foreign language is important as it widens ones perspective. It assists one to better understand other people’s culture in the increasingly interconnected world. It is an important way of understanding other people’s way of doing things without having to rely on interpreters. Interpreters convey the messages according to their subjectivity and this may alter the true meaning of the message and subsequently distort one’s understanding. Communicating with people from different cultures is fun and it enhances social interactions. Social interactions play a significant role in improving ones wellbeing because of the fulfillment that being able to communicate with foreigners. It is important to learn a foreign language so that one can understand others without any information distortions. This helps one to understand and communicate with people from different nationalities particularly in countries that thrive ...