language

‘’To have another language is to possess a second soul.’’ said Charlemagne, which may sound like a cliché but is actually very accurate. I believe that learning a language expands our life views and provides us some significant opportunities. Firstly, I strongly believe that the language we learn directly affects our way of thinking as we start to think in that particular language. For example Turkish is my mother tongue and I am learning English as a second language, so I know that there is not exact translation for most of the words from Turkish to English. In this situation if I think like a Turkish, I will probably be misunderstood and cannot state my ideas clearly. So I have to think like an American when I am speaking English to appropriately express my thoughts. This way I will have a different way of thinking of a different culture and I can get to know that culture better. I think this experience gives me a second identity, and this second identity diversifies the way I look at the things as well as my knowledge. In other words, I become a different person than I was before I learned that particular language. The other benefit of learning a second language is obviously being able to communicate with many people. Especially when a person is learning a widely spoken language like English or Spanish, it becomes a lot easier to get to know other people from different countries and cultures. Additionally learning foreign languages provides huge benefits when it comes to the career, as it is a necessity to know foreign languages to apply for a job or to work abroad. In conclusion learning a new language will expand our knowledge of the world as we have the mentality of a foreign culture while speaking that language and we gain a second identity with that experience. And of course new languages provide us to get to know more people and contribute to our success.