Last Updated on March 10, 2021 by Filip Poutintsev
One can call themselves multilingual or polyglot only if they are capable of communicating with more than two languages. One is their native language or so-called mother tongue while the other two being language learned through classes or experience.
Several people around the globe can communicate using different languages and are usually successful at their work as compared to the monolingual staff.
Multilingualism is one’s ability to conduct effective communication in more than two languages. Multilingualism comes with three prime types namely bilingual, trilingual, and polyglot.
As the name suggests, bilinguals are those who can speak in two tongues, while trilingual are those who can converse in three languages. If an individual can hold a fluent conversation in multiple languages irrespective of the number, he/she is called polyglot.
Previously, as a basic human need, one only needed to be able to speak one language. But with the development in civilization, people eventually understood the possibilities that opened up with the knowledge of Multilanguage. Mainly due to factors such as intermarriage, cohabitation, conquest, travel, trade, or exploration, there raises a need for communication, which can only be fulfilled with the skill of multilingualism.
Nowadays, most of the education systems have mandated the study of a second language in schools and colleges. This has fortified the students with the knowledge of several languages such as French, Spanish, Italian, etc. and empowered them to stand shoulder to shoulder with the world.
According to the research, the population of the multilingual people is found to be more than half the population of the world, which implies that the multilingual people are in majority than the monolingual people throughout the world. Several countries comprise of more than one certified national language so that knowing more can eventually help in understanding more around us.
Once people understand the satisfaction and the value of knowing how to greet in more than one language, they ought to understand the worth of the effort they put in. Being multilingual can be a difficult yet fascinating skill and the people who succeed in this are more likely to have more to offer to the world. Along with this, there are other astounding benefits of being able to speak the multi-language, which will be covered shortly in the following section.
Questions on how the growth of an individual’s emotion, psychology, social status, and knowledge is influenced by being in a multilingual environment, and how multilingualism helps one to increase the possibilities for a bright and cheerful future? will be answered in the forthcoming focusses.
Benefits of Being a Multilingual
The benefits an individual attains due to the ability to speak many languages are immense and somewhat obvious. Such obvious but fruitful profits of being multilingual are listed below:
1. Enhanced Brain Power
Being multilingual essentially alters one’s structure of the brain in such a way that enhances memory, aids in processing information effectively, and improves multitasking. Moreover, an individual with multilingualism skills can deferment dementia’s effects on the brain by about an average of 5 years.
2. Heightened Interaction Skills
Children growing in a multilingual environment are exposed to numerous social diversity, which makes them capable of adapting to consider the perspective of different people. This ability thus leads to heightening their communication skills making them a very good conversationalist.
3. Boosted Recognition of Lingoes
Babies who are subjected to a multilingual environment can recognize more than one language much before they start speaking which facilitates them with a head start in the process of language learning.
4. Heightened Surrounding Consciousness
Being able to speak multiple languages requires one to constantly shift between the languages as per their surroundings, which eventually leads to the development of a certain level of consciousness that allows the one to constantly keep track of everything around them. This ability can be considered very useful in cases such as driving, playing sports, or even walking down the street.
5.Grander Administrative Functioning
The cognitive abilities such as problem-solving, planning, and reasoning are found to be grader in children with multilingualism as compared to the monolingual offspring, maybe because of constantly switching lingoes in a multilingual family. With grander administrative functioning skills, children tend to perform well in their academic records.
6. Amplified Job Prospects
Multilingual applicants have a clean lead against monolingual applicants in a job field, where communicating in various languages is considered to be a plus point. Many multinational companies or businesses contemplate multilingualism as a crucial tool for building a relationship as well as economic success. Thus, anyone with this ability is likely to find a job and have a pay raise much easily than those monolingual applicants. These applicants can have advantages in finding jobs easier.
7. Variety in Perspective
According to the research, with the learning of a new language, one tends to embrace new perspectives and likings due to the effect of the so-called “language mindset”, which is demarcated as the feeling of becoming a different person while utilizing different lingo.
8. Improved Added Language Learning Capacity
As per a study, multilingual people as compared to monolingual individuals can easily learn a new tongue. Also with the procurement of multilingualism, one can not only learn new tongues easily but can enhance the aptitude of their mother tongue because languages strengthen each other and grant measures for reinforcing skills such as morphologic, phonologic, and syntactic.
Conclusion
Summarizing the above explained focusses, multilingualism skill grants a dominant personality to an individual and heightens their influence in the world. A multilingual person will always have an advantage over the monolingual person and are capable of befriending people of numerous nationalities.
It’s never a bad idea of learning more than one language because of the opportunities it opens up, and it’s never too late for acquiring the multilingualism skill.
Multilingual people have a record of better academic as well as professional enactment and are equipped with a wide and broadened perspective. This helps an individual in improving and preserving the relationship with their loved ones, and also opens up a possibility of new affiliation, which eventually arms one with enough support during hard times. Thus, being multilingual is very fruitful and if you aren’t one, then I think now when all the world has come to a halt, is perfect to start acquiring this skill.
References
- thoughtco.com
- researchgate.net
- quora.com
- itcglobaltranslations.com
- kodaheart.com
