8/18/2019 A Foreign Mother Tongue
1/4
Figini Florencia
A Foreign Mother Tongue
A foreign language is the language of a country different from
our own. Therefore, whyshould we spend a lot of time and effort
learning something that some people consider
not too relevant? Learning a second language may be boring or
too hard, but it may also
open the door for other opportunities and to new perspectives
different from the ones we
already know. As a Czech proverb says, you live a new life for
every new language
you speak. !f you know only one language, you live only once."
According to this
proverb, to remain monolingual means to miss the chance to
fully appreciate and
understand not only our own world, but the reality and customs
of the region in which
the language we are learning is spoken. Among these reasons,
there are other
motivations for studying a second language. The increase of the
speaker#s mental
abilities $not only in the areas connected with the speech but
with other areas also%, is
one of the most outstanding points. &urthermore, since the
ability to communicate is a
dire need for companies that compete internationally, it is
impossible not to take into
account the improvement of employment potential for people who
speak more than one
language.
An !talian film director once said' A different language is a
different vision of life." (&.
&ellini in )hy*" par. + To learn a foreign language
increases our opportunities for
getting an insight into our own culture, in addition to allow
people to really know and
understand the literature, the music, the films, and even the
ideas born in other cultures.!n order to fully comprehend what
artists meant to e-press in a piece of art $either oral
or written%, the actual words and feelings they have tried to
convey, it is necessary to
know their language. aving contact with the actual words a
person has used to
communicate, without translations, helps us to understand the
actions, customs and
ideology of other people, e-panding our knowledge and our
ability to interact with
them. Learning a foreign language promotes a global
understanding", not only because
we learn about other people, but also because it leads us to a
better insight into our
minds and into the thoughts and feelings of the people who
surrounds us.
/imilarly, it is our mental abilities that benefit from the
process of learning a foreign
language. /tudying a second language enables people to use more
effectively their
mother tongue and to develop more easily mental fle-ibility,
creativity, and other
thinking skills such as reasoning, conceptualizing, analyzing,
and problem solving. This
is thought to be the result of the variety of learning skills
that are implicated and
developed while a person is learning a new language. !n a study
carried out by 0ugene
Timpe, it was concluded that foreign language study enhances
students1 understanding
of languages in general and enables them to use their native
language more effectively
()arning*" par. 2. )hat is more, it has also been found that
bilingual people has a
more e-tensively utilized cerebral range and a wider
intellectual ability than themonolingual." (0ight*" par. 3.
Conse4uently, learning a language can be hard or take
8/18/2019 A Foreign Mother Tongue
2/4
time, but it gives the language student the benefits of a
cognitive development that
monolingual people do not en5oy.
&inally, and from a different perspective, it can also be
taken into account the fact that
bilingual or multilingual people have more chances to find
a 5ob and to occupy better
positions. This is certainly true for companies that
compete internationally, for the travel
industry, for communication, for international law and for many
other areas, to which
the ability to communicate in a foreign language constitutes a
dire need. 0ven though it
is not true that a 5ob can be found without the knowledge of a
second language, a
recent survey indicated that 367 of the nation1s employers 8in
the 9nited /tates: are
interested in hiring personnel with some degree of language
training." (0ight*" par. ;
0mployees who speak only one language can communicate with
people who speak that
same language. Therefore, knowing a second language certainly
improves
employability.
To sum up, while learning a foreign language may be considered
to be tedious, the
advantages of becoming bilingual or multilingual are enormous.
To stunt our education
development, to restrict our communication and thinking
abilities denying our self the
ability to fully appreciate and understand the world in which we
live $the different
cultures that coe-ist in our planet% are some of the
implications of remaining
monolingual.
8/18/2019 A Foreign Mother Tongue
3/4
Works Cited:
0ight =easons )hy >ou /hould ot @et !nvolved with the /tudy
of &oreign
Languages", retrieved' 26 April, 2663.
http'BBwww.serve.comBsheaBwhynotfl.htm
/herrie A. =ay, )arningD !mportant !nfo =egarding your
&uture", retrieved' 26 April,
2663.
http'BBwww.disls.ualr.eduBEsarayBmainBwhystudyF.htm
)hy we Learn Languages", retrieved' 26 April, 2663.
http'BBwww.vistawide.comBlanguagesBwhyGlanguages.htm
Additional bibliography:
)esley Hohn, &ive @reat =easons to Learn a &oreign
Language", submitted' FI
Jecember, 266K. =etrieved' 26 April, 2663.
http'BBwww.pickthebrain.comBblogB;%great%reason%to%learn%a%foreign%languageB
)olman erMnica, iNos bilingOes, me5ores alumnos", 9nivision
Pnline, retrieved' 26
April, 2663.
http'BBwww.univision.comBcontentBcontent.5html?cidQ++RKI3
http://www.serve.com/shea/whynotfl.htmhttp://www.disls.ualr.edu/~saray/main/whystudy1.htmhttp://www.vistawide.com/languages/why_languages.htmhttp://www.pickthebrain.com/blog/5-great-reason-to-learn-a-foreign-language/http://www.univision.com/content/content.jhtml?cid=449637http://www.serve.com/shea/whynotfl.htmhttp://www.disls.ualr.edu/~saray/main/whystudy1.htmhttp://www.vistawide.com/languages/why_languages.htmhttp://www.pickthebrain.com/blog/5-great-reason-to-learn-a-foreign-language/http://www.univision.com/content/content.jhtml?cid=449637
