Being fluent in a second language could improve your social life

Most of us can remember being at school, at the point where you finally get to decide which subjects you want to keep studying and which ones you give up. I know at my school they kept telling us we should be choosing languages because we’d find it easier to get jobs that way, but hardly anyone listened. Instead we opted for the more fun subjects, music and art and drama, or whatever involved the least actual work. The future seemed so far off, it hardly seemed to matter at all.

I’m sure I’m not alone when I say I regret that now – I don’t mean having fun at school, but not keeping up with language courses when I had the chance. Because the truth is that yes, a second language might help you get a better job, depending what type of work you are looking for, but the benefits don’t stop there. Being able to speak and understand a second language could be good for other areas of life too.

If you want to travel then learning a second language is probably the most valuable thing you could do. Being an English speaker will get you around America, Australia and most of Europe at a push, but learn Spanish or Chinese as well and you’ll be able to make your own way around most of the world.

Even if travelling’s really not your thing, even if you mostly like to stay in, you probably still use the internet, or maybe you like taking on your mates over XBOX live. The technology available to us makes it easier than ever to connect with people from all over the world, but once we’ve connected with them we need to be able to communicate. It’s great to be able to play XBOX games against your friends even when you’re not in the same room, but English is the first language in eight of the 26 countries that have XBOX live. Imagine how much better it would be to learn French or German and be able to connect with all those other people as well!