In this episode, I talk about learning a second language. It was only once I went traveling around the world, that I realized that I was missing this in my life. What I would have given be able to communicate with people and cultures in their own language! This sent me on a path to learn French in later years, but I would soon discover how hard it was to learn a second language with a brain injury. With a memory deficiency, words take a little longer to learn. Repetition is what’s required to cement these neural pathways. 

Learning another language can benefit you in many ways, but here are just 5 things that will happen:

1.    Learning another language will mean that you can communicate in a foreign country with the locals. This was something I wish I could have done when I went traveling. Once I learn to speak French, I will be able to communicate with my partner in her native tongue.

2.    Learning a second language can help us view the world from another perspective. Every different country is full of different culture and a different way of living life, so with that brings different ways of doing things. Once you learn how they do ‘it’, maybe you can do ‘it’ better?

3.    Learning another language will help you open your mind. Our minds are often closed off to other cultures, so we don’t pay them too much attention. Opening our minds can introduce us to a whole new world of music or arts or food, that we would never have discovered otherwise. 

4.    Learning a second language will improve our memories. This is one of the main things I am trying to get out of this experience, a memory upgrade. Science tells us what it can do for our brains, so why not listen?

5.    Learning a second language makes you smarter. What it does is improves the functionality of our brains so that we can negotiate meaning in the problems we face, a lot better. It’s science, you can argue with that!

With all these goodies, how could you not want to learn another language?