by Maria C Collins

Created on: February 14, 2009   Last Updated: January 26, 2010

The advent and the spread of the internet. the ease of modern travel and globalization have made the Earth a very small planet. There are over 6,800 languages spoken in the World. Many languages are spoken only in one small geographical area. If we want to communicate successfully with one another, it is necessary to learn to speak a language other than our native tongue. There are many reasons why it is important to learn languages and why the learning of languages is, and will increasingly be, important for everyone.

When visiting another country, speaking a little of the language will please the inhabitants and get you much more help than shouting loudly at them in English. Unfortunately, one hears many English people still yelling away in restaurants and cafes in France and Spain.

The Internet has brought ordinary people in countries across the World closer together. In speaking the language of another country, one begins to understand the culture of that country, and the way the people may think about things, and we begin to understand that there may be other ways of viewing things than ours. This, hopefully, will lead to a greater understanding between nations.

Globalization means that companies do business way beyond the borders of the country in which they are based. They therefore need employees who can communicate properly and do business in languages other than their native tongue.

Most people in the world have a second language. If you can speak English, French and Spanish you can speak to almost everyone in the World.

Most languages belong to a family of languages from the same root, so if you can speak French, then Italian and Spanish are easier to learn since they come from the same Latin root.

There may be other benefits, especially for children, who speak more than one language. Devolution in the United Kingdom has led to a massive resurgence in the native languages, Gaelic, Irish and Welsh. Many parents require that their children be educated in their native language as a way of grounding them in their own culture. This has had some unexpected benefits. Some experts believe that children who are bilingual have an improved ability to learn, are better at problem solving, and actually have a higher IQ. According to Professor Colin Baker from the University of Bangor, having two languages stimulates the brain and lateral thinking actually making children more intelligent.

We need to improve the teaching of languages in schools and to begin with much younger children. Secondary school is far too late. Learning languages should begin much earlier; little children are fascinated by words and love the idea of being able to say words in another language. Younger children are like sponges and they absorb knowledge, and French, Spanish or Chinese are just one of the myriad of things they will learn in their exploration of the world.

Learning languages is very important in our increasingly technical and shrinking World. It is important for our children to learn languages. We need to be able to do business with people across the globe but perhaps more importantly we need to understand one another.

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