20 Unbeatable Reasons for Learning a New Language:

• To boost professional or academic advancement
Career advancement is one of the number one reasons why British adults want to learn a foreign language. Hardly surprising when you consider that adults with foreign language skills are richer, happier and regarded as sexier than their fellow English-only speakers, according to a new study by Michael Thomas, Hollywood’s celebrity language teacher. The report says that learning a second language can increase the lifetime earnings of an average worker by as much as £145,000.

• To keep your mind healthy
Learning a second language has been proven to delay the onset of dementia

• To give you the edge in a job interview
Even if the position does not require language skills, it can be a great help towards securing a job. Fluency in a second language and the fact that you have had the determination and patience to learn it speaks volumes about your character and commitment.

• To make travelling easier, more enjoyable and more rewarding
Many English speakers seem to believe that wherever you go on holiday you can get by speaking English, so there's no point in learning any other languages. If people don't understand you all you have to do is speak slowly and turn up the volume. You can more or less get away with this, as long as you stick to popular tourist resorts and hotels where you can usually find someone who speaks English. However, if you want to venture beyond such places, to get to know the locals, to read signs, menus, etc, knowing the local language is necessary.

• To enhance cognitive and life skills
Studying a foreign language can enhance one's ability to learn and function in several other areas. Children who have studied a language at the elementary level score higher on tests in reading, language arts, and maths. Those that have learned foreign languages show greater cognitive development. Mental flexibility, creativity, and higher order thinking skills, such as problem-solving, conceptualizing and reasoning are included here.

• To make emigrating more simple
If you want to move to a different country or region, learning to speak the language will help you to get along and integrate well. Learning the local language will also demonstrate your interest and commitment to the new country, as well as making it easier to get a job, to find accommodation, to deal with local authorities and just about everything else.

• To discover family roots
If your partner, in-laws, relatives or friends speak a different language, learning that language will help you to communicate with them. It will also give you a better understanding of their culture and way of thinking

• To appear more attractive to the opposite sex
In addition to being able to speak a second language, knowing another language could make you richer, happier and sexier. Any dating agency will tell you that people who learn or speak a foreign language are more attractive to the opposite sex. Really - it’s something to do with exuding intelligence and sophistication.

• To increase native language ability
Research demonstrates that language skills boosts understanding of languages in general and makes it easier for students to use their native language more effectively. This applies to specific language skills as well as overall linguistic abilities. These results are apparent in several studies as well as in test scores.

• To improve chances of being accepted at college or graduate school
Most colleges and universities require at least two years of high school foreign language instruction for admission. And once enrolled in an undergraduate program, students are likely to find that their college or university prescribes foreign language courses as requirement for the degree. The majority of universities rightly consider knowledge of a foreign language and culture part of what every educated person should know.

• To appreciate international culture, literature and film
Most of the world's literary and artistic works have been written in languages other than English. To be able to fully appreciate literature, theatre, music, and film in other languages, one must be able to access them in their original form.
 

• To expand study abroad options
Because relatively few Americans are competent in foreign languages, competition for study abroad programs in English-speaking countries is sometimes intense. Unfortunately, students often shy away from studying in countries where English is not the native language for all the wrong reasons. They mistakenly believe that their grades will suffer, that their language proficiency isn't adequate, or that they won't be able to fit in or understand the culture.  Simply your willingness to learn a language can make you an apt candidate for many study abroad programs. Some foreign programs require no prior language experience and offer an intensive immersion experience prior to the selected program of study.

• To be a business success
Speaking a foreign language will help you to communicate. It may also help you to make sales and to negotiate and secure contracts. Speaking a second language may also make it easier for you to find a new position, get a promotion, secure an overseas transfer and be selected for international projects.

• To make lifelong friends
Whether through meeting foreign exchange students on your campus or local immigrants in your community, whether getting to know natives or international students while studying abroad, or whether establishing a connection with a pen pal in another country, your ability to speak other languages and your interest in other cultures can connect you deeply with people around the globe

• To improve mental flexibility

• To communicate in secret
Another advantage for you and your close ones of being able to speak a second language is that it enables you to speak in public without the danger of being understood by those around you.

• To improve your self-image
Speaking a second language improves your self-confidence, self-respect and feeling of self worth.

• To give yourself a challenge
Maybe you enjoy the challenge of learning foreign languages or of learning a particularly difficult language.

• To find your future husband/wife
Learning a new language and culture increases the size of your selection pool.

• To improve problem-solving skills
Learning a language will also increase your problem-solving skills and improve your memory, self-discipline and self-esteem. Because progress is very easy to measure, you can quickly take pride in your new abilities.