An unexpected benefit when learning languages
By Aydan Yuen
As we step into a world which supports a more inclusive community, there are likely to be various barriers. Some include government conflicts, racial conflicts, and, most importantly, language barriers. We often think of language as a way of communicating, which is regularly correct. Yet, in terms of academics, it is an entirely different story. Subjects such as Maths and Science have absolute answers, for example, 1+1=2, or the molecular formula for water is H2O, etc. This is completely different from language-based subjects such as English and Chinese, where correct answers are based on multiple factors (depending on the type of text format) such as grammar, vocabulary, and, of course, the content written.
Since most of you reading this article are going to study IBDP in the future, where language subjects such as French and Spanish are available, you might ask yourselves, “Hey, even though I get decent grades for these language subjects as of now, is there any other way of improving my language skills for the future?” The answer to that question is YES! According to an interview conducted by Yours Truly, around 75% of the students (both local and international) that were interviewed agreed that their secondary language, whether it is English or Chinese, will be useful in the future.
A recent article by the SCMP has highlighted that teachers in local schools such as Fanling Kau Fan College are proposing a points system instead of the usual grading system to help reduce the student’s pressure in subjects. This is because to apply to universities, most of them require students to achieve a certain level of fluency in the languages taken. Similar to international students taking the IBDP, local students are required to take six 6 subjects, with some subjects required to be taken at a higher level; in local schools, both languages they take are required to be at a higher level. The chairman of the Fanling Kau Fan College, Lin, stated, “Some [people] are strong in Maths and Science subjects, while their language ability is weak.”
(Image credited to collegenp.com)
There was also a debate by the SCMP held in 2022 about the compulsory need to study a foreign language in school, whether that might be English, Chinese, or any other language that the school has available. The entire debate raised some extremely good points about how people think of language in general. On the “against” side of the argument, they discussed how time-consuming it is to learn another language, even calling it “a missed opportunity to develop skills in interesting subjects,” which is just outright appalling (especially to language teachers). The group against the compulsory need to study a foreign language also supported their statement by calling out Dr. Kevin Williams from the Institute of Education in Dublin, saying, “Insisting on students studying subjects they have no interest in is unwise.” On the other hand, the “for” side argued that learning foreign languages lets us connect with other people, which supports better communication and collaboration with peers. They supported this argument by stating that learning a language, such as Hindi, allows you to speak with more than 650 million people around the world. They also used another example of a language with more popularity, such as Mandarin (where the majority of the people that use this language come from a Chinese background), which allows you to speak with more than a billion people! Let that sink in for a second… Even though the pressure and stress of students' studying are real, we are able to become more well-rounded people in the long run. Therefore, taking more foreign language courses in school may be a benefit.
Personally, I have been learning a total of four languages: English, Mandarin, Cantonese, and Japanese. To be honest, when I started to learn these languages, especially Japanese, I felt that it was only for the benefit of expanding my area of people that I could talk to in their own respective languages. Boy, I was so wrong. After learning these languages on a pretty decent level, it made me realise something that I should have known before. Since languages have some degree of distinctive difference, the theory of using that language will be different. A clear example would be the aforementioned Chinese, as a number like “83” in English is just “eight-e-three”. This is different in Chinese as “83” sounds sound similar to “eight-ten-three”, hence “八十三”. Therefore, languages as a whole have made me look at things through a different lens, which helped me slowly develop my critical thinking and well-roundedness.
In conclusion, learning more foreign languages may be valuable in terms of striving as a person. Most of all, let’s consider embracing language as not just an academic requirement but a portal to becoming more globally connected and culturally aware.