Though those reasons are valid, there are ways to stick to your New Year’s language resolutions without leaving your responsibilities aside. Plus, let’s be honest, the perfect moment never arrives. If you still haven’t made up your mind about your language journey, we’ll help you set your language goals for this New Year. If not today, never!
How Learning a Language Will Help Your Personal Life
Maybe you want to learn a new language from scratch or improve the skills you already have. Whatever the case, language knowledge will improve your life in more than one way.
More and better friendships
If you learn another language, you’ll have the opportunity to connect with people from other countries. Since you’ll know their mother tongue, you’ll be able to speak with them and make new friends. It’s always cool to have international friends. And in today’s modern world, you can keep those friendships alive by connecting through technology.
You can also strengthen the bond with your current friends if you learn their native language. They’ll feel special to you. And they’ll be happy to connect with you through their culture and by speaking with their everyday expressions.
Fights Alzheimer’s Disease
It’s proven that being bilingual helps fight dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. It doesn’t mean that you won’t ever get it, but it will delay the symptoms. So, you could have a longer and better quality of life.
It doesn’t matter if you’re not a child anymore. There’s still time for you to get the cognitive benefits of bilingualism as an adult.
Better education
One of the main goals of many students is to study abroad. Maybe you’re in high school and want to attend a foreign university. Or maybe you’re already in college and want to spend a couple of semesters in another country. To achieve that, you need to have a good level of your target language, so you don’t get lost during classes.
Even if you want to stay in your country, being fluent in a second language looks great for college applications.
So, whatever you want to do, language will give you more tools for a better education. Which will eventually lead to a better job.
How Knowing Another Language Will Help you at Work
Get your dream job
In a globalized world like the one we live in, basically all industries need employees that speak another language. This helps companies grow into international markets and reach a wider audience. So being bilingual or polyglot will give you more chances at getting the job you’ve been dreaming of, because they’ll need YOU.
Get a salary raise
Even if you already have a job and are happy with it, it’d still be helpful to improve your skills. Learning a new language or mastering the one you know will give you more status. And those skills will lead your company to a better place.
So, they might want to compensate you with a salary raise. After all, it’s what you deserve thanks to your knowledge of something so important.
Higher job position
Just like with the salary raise, the better you master a second language the more power you hold. That is, your language skills are useful for the company, so they’ll probably consider you for a higher position. That would give you more prestige, a better resume and better salary.
More clients for your freelance gig
Knowing a second or more languages will also help you as a freelancer. It’ll upgrade the status of your cover letter, because you’ll have an important and high-quality skill. This will attract clients that don’t know a second language and need you for a bilingual job.
You’ll also be able to work for clients from many more countries. For example: if you know English, you can work for American, Australian, British, and more people. But if you also master the French language, you can work for French, Canadian, Swiss, and more clients. That expands your territory and gives you the opportunity to always have work and income. Of course, since languages have variations depending on the country, you really must master the language.
Or concentrate on just one variation; you’ll still have more clients than if you just knew your mother tongue.
Things to Do to Set your Language Goals
It’s okay if you set up your mind at the start of the year to learn a new language, but still haven’t started. It happens to all. We create big resolutions, and have the best intentions, but fail at them. That’s why here are some tips and tricks, so you actually achieve your dream of being fluent in a second language.
Start now!
Oftentimes, when we fail at our resolutions it’s because we’re waiting for the perfect moment. Truth is, there’s no better moment than today. You’ll always have responsibilities at work or school, and at home. So, the trick is to make time to study and practice your language without leaving the rest of your life aside. And believe it or not, you can even practice while doing everyday common chores.
To choose your language
To choose the language you want to learn you can think of the following:
- which language would give you more benefits at work
- which one would help you more in your personal life
- which places would you like to visit or even live in
Of course, for each option there might be different languages. But you must come to a consensus with all those sides of your life. There’s probably one language that will improve your life in general. If not, think of why you want to learn a new language the most. Is it for work? To speak with your foreign in-laws? Or to live abroad? And choose based on that.
Though if you want to learn a language, chances are you already know which one.
To choose a school
You can choose schools based on their prestige, their prices, and their schedule. But one of the best methods to pick a school is based on their language courses. That means which school has a course oriented to the reasons you want to study languages. For example: here at FluencyCorp we have classes oriented to corporate language learning. So, we’re the perfect option for companies and employees. But if you have children interested in Spanish, then you could enroll them into TruFluency Kids.
Divide your language goals
How fast do you want to improve? If you need the language for work or school, you probably need to improve as fast as possible. If not, maybe you can take things slower.
You can write all your goals and the time you want to achieve them on your agenda. Just make sure, they’re realistic. Because if you get your hopes up that you will speak fluently in one month, you might lose motivation when that doesn’t happen. Big goals can be achieved in a short time. But they also must be realistic and based on how much time and effort you can put in your studies.
The best thing is to set some short- and long-term goals. You can divide them in weeks or months. For example: I want to learn French vocabulary for the office in three months. And I want to speak fluently with a foreign business partner in one and a half years. Be very specific. Then, discuss with your potential teacher how you can achieve that. How many classes would you need a week? How long should each class last? And so on. That way you’ll know if they’re realistic goals and if the teacher can help you.
Practice makes perfect
Even if you’re not in a rush to learn another language and can take things slow, you still need to practice after class. Though you probably have other things to do besides language school and don’t have much time after.
Good news is, you can still practice what you’ve learned while doing other things. For example: you can practice the clothes vocabulary while getting dressed for the office. Just ask yourself how to say in your target language the things you’re wearing. Or practice the vocabulary for traveling when you’re on a family or business trip. Or just listen to some music and watch some movies in your target language.
There’s always a way to involve language in your every day.
Meet Your New Year’s Language Resolutions with Fluency Corp
Here at FluencyCorp, we can help you with your New Year’s resolution of learning another language. We have corporate language classes for you and your employees. We’ll make sure everyone becomes fluent in any language you choose. So, they can help your company evolve into a global business.
We offer online or onsite classes with a native teacher, as well as flexible schedules. Choose the one that suits your teamwork’s agenda the best. And start growing into a better boss and businessperson.
If you have questions, you can set up a free consultation with Fluency Corp by contacting us at getfluent@fluencycorp.com or (800) 401-3159.
