“The more languages you speak, the more people listen.” Believe it or not, speaking multiple languages is NOT as common as most of us so blindly believe in fact only 17 percent of the world is multilingual, or fluent in 2 or more languages. Being multilingual is a rare skill not many individuals possess… but you don’t want to be just like any other individual do you? Speaking more than one language has a plethora of benefits, one of which I know you’ll love. Being bilingual, trilingual, etc., gives you more advantages when it comes to your career. People who are bilingual, as I have mentioned, are extremely rare, and because of this fact they earn 5 – 20% more than the average employee (referring to monolinguals meaning – people who only speak one language) piggy backing of that point, employees have shown increased performance in areas of completing and succeeding creative and divergent thinking tasks. Toronto’s York University even goes so far as to state that bilingual children are better at prioritizing tasks than monolinguals.
The other benefits although you might find them less appealing are still astounding. Circling back to the very title of this article bilingual people have consistently scored higher on the IQ scale that everyone you know and love takes and retakes in hopes that they are secretly THE modern day Albert Einstein. Although the fact that people who possess this skill have a higher IQ should be no surprise considering how stimulating learning and speaking a language is, allow me to further and reinforce this concept. This ability enriches your cognitive control, improving metalinguistic awareness, increases memory, visual and spatial skills, and creativity.
Along with enhancing your academic prowess, appeall and adding to your arsenal of self-benefiting skills it would make traveling all the more worth it. Traveling to a place so out of the norm and naturally baffling in its own regard is a prestige privilege, speaking another language especially one native to the place you are traveling is bound to take your experience to the next level. By speaking the language of a country you are visiting it allows you to fully immerse yourself into the cultural vibrancy and dig deeper providing you with an experience you would otherwise be unable to attain or reach.
So now I leave you with one simple question: what will it be to speak….. or not to speak?
