While a foreign love interest may have spurred you to become articulate in his/her native tongue, studying a new language offers you much more than just an alternative mode of verbal communication. The process of learning and understanding a language promises expansion of both one's mind and knowledge!
Scientific studies have repeatedly revealed that studying a foreign language can improve your analytic and interpretive capacities as well as creative thinking skills. The enhancement of one's mental faculties as a by-product of language learning is further highlighted by a survey conducted on American children. The results showed that students who had studied a second language generally performed better academically.
Another amazing gift from acquiring a new language is the broadening of personal horizons through exposure to another culture. Language is intertwined with culture, so you inevitably discover more about a race of people simply by studying their lingo. This in turn sharpens your sensitivity to cross-cultural diversity and allows you to appreciate the distinct heritage that shaped each ethnic group.
In the course of familiarising yourself with a foreign language, you will also develop a better appreciation for your own mother tongue and its roots. This is especially true if a native English speaker studies Greek or Latin for example, since many English words originated from these languages.
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