Many middle schools have a variety of elective choices. At CVMS, we are offered a language class. These languages include Chinese, Spanish, French, and German. These classes are offered to teach kids a second language other than English. But why should someone choose to take one of these classes?

It is a communication skill you will always have

As long as you practice and continue to use your second language, you’re always going to have that skill. If you learn Spanish, you can communicate with anyone who speaks Spanish. This goes for all languages. Knowing another language is going to help you as you travel, get a career, and lots more. Just think about it… always knowing a language other than English! Think of all the possibilities!

Opportunities in life

This is similar to always having that skill of communication. Because you can now communicate in a different language, you can travel, get jobs, learn about other cultures, communicate, and more! You can know several languages and that will help you get a job, especially in the field of business. You can go to a country that speaks the language you know, and you can communicate with almost anyone there. You’ll fit right in. Also, language is a part of someone’s culture. Just by knowing that language, you can understand the rest of a culture so much better.

Second languages help the brain

Time to get scientific. According to Live Science, research suggests that learning a second language may improve thinking skills and memory abilities. It can also help with attention skills. You may pay more attention to important information, not only when it comes to languages, but just in everyday life. This may be due to the process of switching back and forth between two languages. Just by learning a second language, you can get better at other things as well. 

But did you know:

According to Be Brain Fit, being bilingual (being fluent in two languages) can protect your brain from aging! Being bilingual can protect you from dementia and Alzheimer’s for an extra 4.5 years! It can work better than some of the best drugs to prevent Alzheimer’s (which only works for about 6-12 months).

Languages can be interesting and fun

Language and culture can be plain fun! Some people find it interesting to learn other languages, so they may try to learn many languages. I’m not saying you have to find languages highly interesting or that you have to learn a bunch of languages. All I’m saying is you should at least give language learning a try. Whether you find it fun or not, don’t stop learning! And even if languages aren’t for you, you can still learn about them and culture and where they come from. Language has something for everyone! 

CVMS Opinions-

We asked a couple students these questions:

1. Do you know more than one language?
2. Do you take a foreign language class?
3. Do you think learning a second language is important?

And here is what your peers said in response:

    Rochela Sjariffudin (7)- 

1. Yes, I know Indonesian and Chinese.
2. No, I do not take a foreign language class.
3. Yes, especially when you are traveling.

Victoria Rondon (7)- 

1.  Yes, I know Spanish.
2. Yes, I am learning French.
3. Yes, I think learning a second language is important because it helps you communicate.

So as we heard from Sjariffudin and Rondon, learning a second language is good.

To summarize, learning a second language is very important for all the reasons I listed above. You may have thought the only reason to learn a language is to have a skill you can use, but there’s more than that. In the end, learning a new language is good for you and it can be fun. So give it a try, we have many amazing teachers who will help you as you learn a second language. 

Here is an example of a Spanish 1b class presentation.