Kennesaw State University students should be aware of the workforce and personal benefits that come along with being multilingual in order to take advantage of them.
Workforce Advantages
According to a New American Economy report that considers languages in relation to job industries, the demand for multilingual employees is prominent. New American Economy studies show that employers are actively searching for people who are multilingual through ads. As the demand for multilingual workers increase, so will benefits such as pay.
Multilingual individuals have an advantage in the workforce with their ability to converse with a greater variety of people. The advantage helps create connections in the workforce that they may have not been able to obtain prior. In conversation, words are sometimes lost in translation. Knowing other languages gives a person a better perspective and understanding of work-related discourse.
Travel Benefits
While meeting new people when traveling to other countries, one may be able to connect with the country’s natives by sharing the same language. It also can make traveling easier and more enjoyable. Travel blogger Matt Long says in his article, “Importance of Language When You Travel,” that his experience in learning languages before travel makes the experience more beneficial.
Heightened Intelligence
According to a study researched by Deputy Director at Western Sydney University Mark Antoniou, there is a strong positive correlation between being multilingual and intelligence.
“Cognitively stimulating activities, both long and short term, lead to cognitive benefits, brain changes and improved cognitive aging outcomes. Bilingualism (use of two or more languages) is one such cognitive stimulation, and possibly engages a significantly larger brain network than others (such as completing crossword or Sudoku puzzles or learning how to juggle), making it a likely candidate to improve domain-general cognitive function,” Antoniou said.
Authors of a National Library of Medicine study, Albert Costa and Núria Sebastián-Gallés, say those who speak more than one language have benefits beyond the apprehension of language. According to Costa and Gallés, multilingual individuals have different brain structures that improve their brain’s “executive control” compared to monolinguals.
People who are multilingual are able to receive more job opportunities and can easily make connections in the workforce. Individuals who speak more than one language also have better traveling experiences and a higher intelligence rate.
