Over the years, multilingualism has proven to be fruitful to its beneficiaries based on the opportunities or perhaps open doors that this exposure brings to them. Beyond reasonable doubt, it has a way of restructuring the functions of the human brain for utmost efficiency both academically and in life situations. Furthermore, multilingualism implies the teaching of the academic curriculum using different languages which are in most cases the native language and secondary languages of choice mostly selected by the body of educational institutions in the country and thus are backed up by the law. Being multilingual not only aids learning in the four walls of the classroom, it also aids the cross cultural understanding of cultural diversities and similarities. This article sorts to discuss four powerful benefits of multilingualism.
Benefits of Multilingualism
HEIGHTENED MEMORY CAPABILITY
Research and practical analysis had shown that students or perhaps people that are exposed to multilingual form of education tend to possess high level of cognition accrued towards retentive memory compared to single language speaking individuals. Multilingual people are known to be good in remembering names of locations, people directions even for long period of time compared to a person who speaks one. It is argued that multilingual people develop certain brain functions such as attention switching, inhibition and an effective working memory.
ECONOMIC INDEPENDENCE
The world is evolving, the need for inter-country relationship is paramount as such the workforce of most industries of the world is constantly searching for bilingual or multilingual individuals to assume the mantle of certain positions (in other words well-paid jobs). Being employed in these companies as a bilingual/multilingual individual gives you a financial independence that you deserve. Multilingualism gives students an edge over their peers in the labour market when it comes to job opportunities and employment.
UNDERSTANDING IN A CROSS-CULTURAL CONTEXT
Multilingualism exposes individuals to understanding cultures in their own context. Given the knowledge of two opposing cultures, an individual is empowered to view and analyse phenomenon from two different prospects; a characteristic that a single speaker lacks as such birth’s ethnocentrism of some kind.
IMPROVED BRAIN FUNCTION
The primary function of the brain as a command set is meant to direct the processes involved in planning, solving problems, and performing mental tasks. Survey shows that multilingual individuals are opportune to carry out these functions in a way far different and better compared to a single speaking person. They can sieve out relevant information from irrelevant information meaning that they are more focused, think critically, and make most probable decisions.
The importance and benefits of multilingualism can be overemphasized since it gives beneficiary cognitive capability that are useful in the present and will be useful in years to come for the individual and the community as a whole.
