What is a Second Language?
Second language is a word given to a language that a
person learns in addition to their first language. A second language may be learned in a formal
or informal way, e.g. at school or
in a family. It is possible that a person speaks two or more second
languages.Some
children have more than one native language like when they live in a foreign
country or when their father speaks a different language from their mother.
Learning a Second Language
There are many different things that factor
into the decision about how to teach a person a second language, including the
following:
- language
spoken in the home
- amount
of opportunity to practice the second language
- internal
motivation of the learner
- reason
that the second language is needed (e.g., to learn at school, to talk to a
friend, or for work)
There are different ways that
to introduce the second language:
- by
setting (e.g., English is spoken only in the school, and Urdu is spoken
only in the home)
- by
topic (e.g., French is spoken only during meal time, and Spanish is spoken
during school/work activities)
- by
speaker (e.g., Mom will speak only in German, and Dad speaks Russian only)
The ability of a person to
use a second language will depend on his or her family's ability to speak more
than one language. It is important for parents/caregivers to provide a strong
language model. If you cannot use the language well, you should not be teaching
it.
Benefit of Second Language
In today's world, there is over 7000
languages and learning at least one will help you in life massively. Although
it has been proven that it is easier for children to learn a second language,
it is certainly never too late to learn, and the benefits definitely reward the
effort and dedication.
Whatever your age, being bilingual certainly has its
advantages, especially in today's global society. Here are the top benefits of
learning a second language:
- Improve Decisions Skill: Study shows that when people speak in a language other than their native tongue, it helps getting too caught up in the “here and now” to make better choices.Bilinguals
are more confident with their choices after thinking it over in the second language and
seeing whether their initial conclusions still stand up.
- Improve your Employment Ability: We live in an
increasingly globalized world and companies are constantly expanding overseas
and dealing with clients from all over the world. Between two candidates with
the exact same skill set and experience, the person who is bilingual is
arguably much more likely to get the job.
- Discover new Culture: Music, movies, food, literature, poetry, theater, fine arts: the list of fabulous things that culture brings to our lives by learning a second language is endless. You might have heard that language and culture are two sides of the same coin: I would tend to agree with this.
- Meet New People and Develop Life-long Friendships :Meeting new and interesting people and developing life-long friendships (or, who knows, even the love of your life!) are certainly objectives well worth aspiring for, and learning another language is a sure way to expedite that process. Plus, learning a language is FUN!
- Become More Open-Minded :Learning a
foreign language and getting soaked into an entirely new culture and world view
is the surest way to become an open-minded, understanding individual, and that
is, I would argue, absolutely priceless. Once you are aware of the fact that we
are all cultural beings, products of our own environments, and that you
recognize the cultural base for your own attitudes and behavior, you are ready
to consider others in a more favorable light.
Everybody has
different reasons for learning a language (or not). But by now, I hope I’ve
managed to convince at least some of you of the amazing rewards that learning
another language can bring. Of course, it’s not an easy process, and it does
take time and effort. But the investment is well worth it.
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