Personally, I took French for several years in junior high and high school. I also traveled to French speaking countries such as France, Belgium, Switzerland, Monaco, etc. My language skills were quite good, but I never did become fluent. Nowadays, I still have a level of proficiency in French, but my skill level has diminished due to not using the language. That’s with anything if you don’t use it you lose it.
I have decided to brush up on my language skills and started researching different options to increase my understanding and decided not to pursue the conventional route. I looked at the different software to help you learn a language including: Rosetta Stone, Babbel, and Duolingo, however, I determined I wanted an authentic option. As a result, I signed up on a website to find a language exchange partner. The site has a worldwide language learning community with many people who are looking to connect with others to learn and/or sharpen their language skills.
There are many options online encompassing this model, whereby you choose a language partner(s) and communicate online through chat or call directly from your browser. It’s easy to do and you get to share your interests and passions with those you choose to speak to.
Did you know there are 29 countries that speak French? This does not take into consideration the thousands of people from Louisiana who speak French or a French creole. There are approximately 220 million French speakers in the world, however, the continent of Africa is home to the most French speakers than any other continent. You may ask why Africa has so many French speakers, it is primarily due to the colonization of several countries on the continent. In fact, do you know French is the fastest growing language in the world. It is projected French will be spoken by 750 million people by 2050 and will be ahead of English and Mandarin.
Needless to say, learning another language has many benefits that include: an opportunity to connect with others, career advancement opportunities, its great way to keep good mental health and cognition, and it is easier to travel when you speak the language. Just think there are 7.53 billion people around the world who speak the roughly 6,500 languages. According to the Guinness, Ziad Fazah speaks 58 languages and holds the Guinness World Record for speaking the most languages.
Go out there and learn a language and the next time use it on vacation. You will notice while you are travelling people will appreciate your effort to speak the local language.
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6 Responses
Do I need to learn to speak French,0r what language should I learn,thanks Roz,very in sightful as usual.
Learn whatever language speaks to you, there’s nothing like learning a language you don’t like.
Took German in high school but can’t remember a thing.
It’s okay, you can always revisit or learn a new language to help with cognitive skills.
One day it would be nice to learn to speak another language.
A co-worker I once worked with said he learned to speak Spanish to talk to the girls he went to school with. It was a big help on the job!!!
Your coworker had an interesting reason for learning Spanish, nevertheless, it proved to be a valuable skill to have. Speaking another language is another way to set yourself a part from other job candidates as well.