Learning for Fun? Learn a New Language Today

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Have you considered learning a new skill, I mean a lifetime skill? If so, what is it?

Whatever new skill you might have in your mind, I am sure you have reasons, and you must have weighed the benefits knowingly or unintentionally.

Now, have you thought about learning a new language, a foreign language? If yes, what language would that be?

Well, I have recommendations, three recommendations; my number one pick for you is Spanish, then followed by Russian, then Chinese, surprise? Well, I will give you my reasons.

But before that let me give you reasons to learn a new language.

1. It improves your intelligence quotient (IQ)
2. Learning a new language makes you smarter
3. It adds to your skills
4. Makes you employable
5. You can earn a living by becoming a school or private language teacher
6. It increases your chance of settling down in the language country more readily
7. It makes you readily acceptable in the language country
8. Boost your self-esteem and confidence
9. It increases your chance of getting over culture shock
10. By learning a language, you tend to learn about the culture of the people too
11. By learning a new language, you increase your chance of communicating comfortably with a larger world population

Why you should learn Spanish

Spanish is the second most spoken language globally, having about 418 million speakers, constituting about 6% of the world population. What this implies is that if you learn Spanish and become fluent at speaking, then you can boast of something to 6 % of the earth’s population. Is that not amazing?

Again, you tend to settle in very fast in Spanish communities in other countries like France, Portugal, Sweden, Italy, etc.

Attending Russian Classes

While you learn Russian, you can rest assured that you are among the 156 million persons in the world who would be able to speak the language so comfortably and fluently in any given situation.

If also you are considering migrating to eastern Europe, you might want to learn Russian as many of the countries that make up the region either have Russian as their native language or unofficial language.

What does this mean? It means you would learn the speakers’ culture and settle in well in any Russian communities of these countries, such as Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Georgia, Estonia, Azerbaijan, Latvia, Lithuania, etc.

The United States of America, for example, has communities of Russian speakers. In California, there are about 110,000 Russian speakers and almost 41,000 speakers in both New Jersey and Illinois.

Other countries with Russian communities outside Eastern Europe include; Mongolia, Cyprus, Finland, Poland, and China.

Learning Russian is relatively easy and interesting in contrast to the misconception held by people that it is hard to learn. You could find a teacher for yourself or learn with language mobile apps such as Memrise.

Reasons to learn Chinese

Mandarin, otherwise known as Chinese, is the world’s most spoken language, with the Chinese, Singapore, and Taiwan people been the native speakers. They make up about 11% of the total world population.

If you are in the United States, you would be among the six million persons that speak the Chinese language when you learn Chinese.

Chinese is also one of the six official languages of the United Nations. About 273 countries have Chinese communities ranging from small to large. Some of the counties of the world that have Chinese communities Include; India, Indonesia, Brazil, Nigeria, Russia, Bangladesh, etc.

It is easy to learn the Mandarin language, as some schools now offer it as an extra-curricular course. Also, the Internet has plenty of sites where you can meet teachers online who are ready to teach at a relatively low cost.

Best language apps

On a single search on Google about apps that could best teach you any language of your choice, the following are likely the first ten results you would come across. They include;

Duolingo: it is an app with built-in language courses at different levels. It offers up to 100+ languages for both fast and slow learners.

Memrise: an app gamified with memes to aid fast learning.

Lingua lift: learn through the structured scheme and also the ability to talk to a real tutor online.

Babbel: teaches 13 languages with the first 40 classes free, after which you would have to pay some amount before you can continue

Rosetta Stone: it is one of the most common language apps. It teaches you words but lacking in context. It is still in the market because it was one of the first language apps to b built

Busuu: learn through structures scheme. There are twelve languages available to learn. You can also chat with a language native speaker

HiNative: as the name suggests, this language app matches a learner with a native speaker who will teach directly in a one-on-one conversation.
It is free.

HelloTalk: it’s a language learning app with a WhatsApp-like chat tool for texting and recording, and sending voice. Also, you can correct any mistake you feel the other user made by the inbuilt correction tool.

TripLingo: a wonderful app that has classes divided into handy sections where you can learn phrases suitable for particular scenarios or cases. Also, you can switch between learning a formal speech and casual speech. 15% of Triplingo resources are free, but you need to pay to unlock the remaining resources.

Leaf: leaf is a great language app that teaches you words contextually. With this, you know when to use words in the right manner and circumstance.

Take home

Even if you do not see enough reasons with me to learn a new language, try learning a new language for fun or learn it as though it is a requirement to be met to fulfill your career or purpose in life.

Find the best app and purchase textbooks on the desired language you would want to learn, and try to combine the two for an effective learning strategy.