With course selection currently on the go, here are a few reasons why you might consider learning a new language.

Why learn a foreign language?

1. Learning a foreign language boosts brain power
2. A person’s ability to multi-task is developed
3. The mind becomes sharper.

A study conducted in Spain showed that multilingual people have alert and keen minds. They easily spot anything that is irrelevant or deceptive. The study was conducted comparing multilingual and monolingual subjects, and the former notably had the edge. The discipline that they developed in studying an unknown subject has moulded them to become more perceptive. Thus, they learn to be critical-thinkers.

4. The first language is improved.

A student of foreign language is exposed to a whole new language structure and makes them more conscious of vocabulary, grammar, conjugation, idioms, sentence construction, comprehension and conversing. Learning the new mechanics is usually done juxtaposed with English, or the first language. Hence, students become more aware of English and develop a good ear for listening to the subtle gradations of each language. The first language is usually not as thoroughly studied, for the simple reason that it’s a given. But with the new language on the other side, a student finds it important to look at English with more interest.

5. Performance in other academic areas is enhanced.

Because the brain is made to operate differently, it develops a variety of cognitive skills. Studies show that the benefits of learning a new language included higher scores on standardised exams in maths, reading comprehension, and vocabulary by multilingual students compared to the scores of monolingual students. Continued immersion was known to increase IQ and develop innovativeness in students.

6. Foreign language expands career potentials.

With universal unemployment problems, a multilingual ability is definitely a competitive edge over others. It is an ability that tells of a person’s intelligence, flexibility, openness to diverse people, and decision-making skills. And these are just bonuses to the evident ability to communicate in several languages and cross cultural barriers.

Akiko Harada works with both primary and secondary teachers as an adviser for Japanese. She believes that learning languages at school helps to shape globally-minded students. Read more

My name is Alex Boyle, and I graduated from Boys’ High in 2013. Ms Wright has asked me to write a short piece detailing how my experience studying French throughout school has affected me. French is the subject from school that I miss the most, it was challenging, interesting, and above all, fun, each and every day.

I am currently a third year medical student at the University of Auckland and although the study of language may seem irrelevant to my current work, it is more intrinsic to my ambitions than ever. When I graduate I wish to work for Doctors without Borders, the world’s most highly regarded medical aid organisation. Whether I would have considered this as an option without studying French I don’t know, but my baseline of French will be a great advantage in the hugely competitive application process. 

However, it is not the practical side of learning French that has benefited me the most, but rather the way in which learning another language has opened my eyes to the size of the world and the huge variety of people that fill it. The language you speak is the template on which you hang your internal thoughts - it sculpts the way you think. Learning a foreign language allows you to begin to understand how people’s language (and by extension their backgrounds), fundamentally influences how they behave, communicate and think. Learning French has allowed me to think in a new and exciting way, and has allowed me to understand people in a new way. 

Conversing with someone in another language is one of the most satisfying things I will ever do. There is something incredible about using your mind in a completely different way in order to communicate and form bonds with someone you otherwise wouldn’t be able to. This is perhaps the part of learning French that has brought me most satisfaction. 

Of all the subjects I took at school, French has been the most fundamental in opening my mind to the world and what I can do in it, and for it. I believe this worldliness is the kind of quality we should instil in our Fine Young Men.
Altiora Peto