With how many people Earth has, it’s shocking to find out that only 17% of our population is multilingual. Learning a different language is an extremely important life skill, and your time may be running out to learn a language.

Linguistic professionals have thought of the “Critical Period Hypothesis,” which is a theory in which there is a period of time in your life when learning a language is at its easiest. This period usually is between before and during puberty, which is why middle and high school students are encouraged to take language classes and aren’t offered in elementary schools. As you age, it becomes harder to learn a language because you’re accustomed to your primary language. There are multiple reasons why you should learn other languages, such as an increased salary, more job offers, and mental improvements. Hopefully you’re convinced to try it out before you become too old to quickly master it.

One of the most important reasons people decide to learn another language is because of the business world. Many businesses look for multilingual employees to help with customer service or trade deals, as having people who speak other languages helps increase the range of people they can talk to. Being multilingual also raises your salary by 5% all the way to 20%, as well as increasing your chances of a raise solely because you can attend to more customers.

Being multilingual has also been shown to help people’s brains. Individuals with many languages have been shown to exhibit superior functions in problem solving and planning, as the constant switching of languages develops the executive functioning skills of individuals. They are also shown to have an easier time multitasking due to multitasking constantly with language switching, have improved memory as they have to retain information for the languages they know, and even delay the onset of Alzheimer’s and dementia for around 4.5 years due to them exercising their brain and holding control of it by constantly speaking other languages, which slows down their brain’s degeneration.

There are so many advantages to being multilingual, and it’s a shocker that so many people have decided not to learn at a younger age. Being able to improve your salary, increase your probability of a raise, and develop your brain even further are all worth studying another language. For those who haven’t yet started, go pick up a book or a class and start learning!

Resources:

• https://www.ted.com/talks/belle_ho_global_language
• https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3723803/
• https://workforceessentials.com/career-benefits-of-being-bilingual/#:~:text=Do%20jobs%20ever%20pay%20more,seeking%20the%20same%20bilingual%20employees.
• https://www.ziprecruiter.com/Salaries/Bilingual-Customer-Service-Representative-Salary-in-Houston,TX
• http://kodaheart.com/10-things-21/
• https://www.alzheimers.net/bilingualism-might-delay-alzheimers-by-more-than-4-years
• https://www.newsdle.com/blog/world-population-bilingual-percentage#:~:text=43%25%20of%20the%20world’s%20population,in%20two%20or%20more%20languages.