According to Britannica encyclopedia, ‘language is a system of conventional spoken, manual (signed), or symbols by means of which human beings, as members of a social group and participants in its culture, express themselves.’ Hence, it can be said that the language is the most powerful and sophisticated tool used by humans to communicate their thoughts, ideas and express their feelings. There are more than 7000 languages spoken in the world today. These languages represent diverse cultures and are based on different political, social and economic settings. Due to the globalization, the countries are inter-connected and therefore different languages and cultures are shared in the world. As a result of that, a tendency has been created to learn languages because of the numerous opportunities it gives. Likewise, learning foreign languages has become beneficial in the aspects of education, career and international relations.   

As mentioned above, language is a very significant component of the culture of a particular community and has an identity of its own. In the aspect of education, people from developing countries tend to learn foreign languages such as Mandarin, Spanish, French and German to pursue higher educational opportunities overseas. Specially in Sri Lanka, a smaller number of students are facilitated to study in the state universities, therefore many students attempt to study abroad. In that case, only English language fluency would not be sufficient, as many of the countries including Japan, Germany, France demands the knowledge in their languages. Most of these countries offer fully or half- funded scholarships for the citizens in the developing countries.  Hence, it is an advantage for the students to know a foreign language to enjoy these benefits to continue the academics.

One of the other most valued facts is that learning foreign languages will be fertile in pursuing a career in abroad. The industrialized countries such as Japan, Korea and Germany offer the people a number of career opportunities. Particularly, there is an interest for the employees in health, academical, and industrialized fields in the European countries. If someone is well-versed in a foreign language, he or she could apply for these jobs. Now, specifically since the countries are knitted due to the globalization, one could easily find vacancies posted in online websites. Further, there is currently a great demand for the ‘online workers. It enables greater earning methods for the people in spite of any geographical boundary. When considering the local market, foreign language fluency comes in handy in tourism field. There are vacancies for people in travel agencies, hotel and hospitability, chauffeur or tour guiding. On one hand, the more the field of tourism succeeds, the more it would be advantageous for the economy of the country, on the other hand, it helps to commercialize the Sri Lankan name in the international market. Teaching foreign languages also offers vocational opportunities to many as learning languages has become trending in the world. Moreover, translation and interpretation are some other popular careers which could be followed by multilingual speakers.

Learning foreign languages opens gates for sharing literature of different languages, such as short stories, novels, poems, proses, drama and theatre, films and also cuisines, fashion, philosophies and traditions. Through that, people will not only have an understanding regarding the cultures in the world but also it paves the way for them to experience different thinking, values and beliefs unique to a group of people in the world.  There are world renowned pieces of art written in foreign languages which have made greater and better changes in the world. The multilingual speakers in the world would not only surpass the boundaries in the country but also dive the ocean of intellectuals.

Learning a language is not just about speaking or writing in that language. The people will have a profound understanding and tolerance of other cultures and their values. It creates a positive impact towards the peace and harmony among the human-beings. The more one could learn a specific language, the more that would aid to terminate the prejudices against a particular culture. Furthermore, it assists in connecting the people around the world. It is through a language, a strong communication and thereafter the trust among other is built.

Being proficient in a or more foreign languages does not only give one the ability to communicate in that particular language, but the learning process itself is a blessing in developing the analytical thinking, problem solving, dealing with abstract concepts and the decision making of the people as discovered by the studies. One of the reasons for that is the languages in the world belong to different language structures, have different pronunciations, in the aspect of linguistics is considered. On the account of that when one excels in that learning process, they simultaneously improve a number of other language learning skills as well.

As the countries are knitted in the global village today, it is of paramount importance in politics to build healthy international relationships to strengthen the bonds with them. In the field of foreign services, the fluency in foreign languages is a must to create diplomatic ties for the betterment of the country. Further, one could contribute to make the world a better place through organizations such as UN, UNESCO where there are number of representatives are gathered to make decisions and policies to do something good for the world and help the ones in need.

Considering above all facts, one could say that learning languages offers a number of golden opportunities to people. It allows you to achieve a number of cultural, political, economic and social advantages.

Waruni Dissanayaka

Department of Linguistics

Faculty of Humanities