There are thousands of languages spoken across the world. Each country has one dominant language which is spoken by majority of the population of the country. But the people of these countries can sometimes speak some languages other than the major tongue. These people can be termed as bilingual or multilingual depending on the number of languages they can speak. Being bilingual can be an amazing skill to have. But people often ask questions like “Does being bilingual actually have any advantages?” or “Are there any disadvantages of being a bilingual?” It would be best to say that despite the disadvantages of being a bilingual, there a lot more advantages of being one.
Being bilingual can be good for mental health. In the article, “9 Real Benefits of Learning a Second Language”, published by GO Oversees, author Elaina Giolando describes how learning a new language is an exquisite manner to maintain your mind healthful and sharp. She also mentions various psychological researches according to which being bilingual can enhance a person’s multitasking abilities, interest control, trouble fixing and creativity by improving critical thinking. Also, it can assist in enhancing your memory. Studies have proven that bilingual youngsters can outperform monolingual youngsters in some of the difficulty areas.
Bilingualism can also help in brain development in certain ways. According to the article “The amazing benefits of being bilingual” published by BBC Future, being bilingual can enhance a child’s academic development, cognitive functions, social abilities, literacy, and emotional abilities which have advantageous results. Being bilingual exposes a man or woman to numerous customs, ideas, and views from one-of-a-kind cultures. Of course, you could nevertheless study different cultures without understanding a 2nd language, therefore it can be extremely useful knowing the language before anyone wants to know the culture.
Bilingualism makes it easier to travel to new places or countries. In the article “The Advantages of Being Bilingual,” the author says that “It’s certainly possible to enjoy a trip to a foreign speaking country without knowing the language, being able to speak with locals can make it a whole new and unforgettable experience.” If a person likes to travel and see the world, being able to speak local language of the destination makes the journey smoother. Traveling becomes more pleasant when there isn’t any language barrier. A person knowing the local language will have full experience while travelling to a foreign country. He will have the ability to speak at once with the locals and make great pals along with the travel.
People who are able to speak multiple languages often have better professional lives and greater career advantages. In the article “9 Real Benefits of Learning a Second Language” the author says, “Knowing another language makes your resume stand out in a huge pool of job applicants. National and multinational organizations of all types have a need for multilingual professionals and being one of them makes you a more versatile and highly valued employee”. Communication inside the administrative center is important, and greater companies, specifically people with worldwide offices, are thinking about bilingualism as an excessive priority. Being capable of talking to overseas customers or clients is taken as a large gain, too.
Being bilingual also has medical benefits. It has been proven that bilingual people are most likely to avoid various mental disorders. The author of the article “9 Real Benefits of Learning a Second Language” also mentions recent research which proves that a bilingual person’s brain ages slowly comparing to that of a monolingual and, they live longer and pleasurable lives. It is now broadly identified that being bilingual can put off neurological sicknesses like dementia and Alzheimer’s.
Talking about the benefits, being bilingual might seem to have an excellent skill to have but there are people who think otherwise. There are disadvantages of being bilingual as much as the advantages. But, most common of them is Language Fluency Delay. When a person tries to learn or master two languages, it may take some time to become proficient in those languages due to the delay in fluency of the languages.
The list of disadvantages is also a bit long. The article “The 5 Worst Things About Being Bilingual” published by Babble Magazine, lists some of them. A major disadvantage can be that sometimes, it can become a common thing to start a sentence in one language and then end it in another for bilingual people. People tend to convey and express themselves in words that are easy to find. Therefore, if you do not have a word in one language, fill it with a word in another language. This can create a problem for people talking to them who don’t know the other language. Bilingual people may also prefer to speak one language over another, so one of the languages predominates. This happens on a regular basis. Because one turns out to be easier than the other, and therefore, exposed to more.
For immigrants who are mostly bilingual who speak their language of origin and their common language, the language of origin is very distressing. We may refuse to communicate in our native language with our parents and others because our native language is not very popular in the community. Bilinguals also suffer many other problems, such as being social and how others think about them. This way immigrants in a particular country suffer the most. The article, “Are There Any Disadvantages to Being Bilingual?” published by My Language Break, explains how Immigrants aren't really celebrated the way many people think. Most people think they are special, but many think that they are strange. Immigrants in particular look different and are still somehow connected to their culture. They have a strange accent that radiates them and characterizes them as different. Children can be mean when they get together to bully someone different from them. Bilingual adults are considered proud people who speak only to "show" what makes their peers jealous, especially after failing to learn a language. It is a big challenge for bilingual people to integrate with their peers and not be considered "eccentric" or "know everything.”
The list of difficulties with bilingualism doesn’t end. But still, the number of people favoring being bilingual dominates the number of people opposing it. Most of the successful people are either bilingual or multilingual. For some, learning a new language presents a new challenge which they like to take. It gives a boost to their confidence and a satisfaction to be able to fight and conquer the challenge of being bilingual.
Altogether, I would say that there are more advantages than disadvantages of being bilingual. Also, majority of problems faced during learning a new language can be overcome by more practice and patience. There are people who are not just bilingual but multilingual and are successful in their life and have better mental health. So yes, learning new languages and becoming bilingual is worth it.
References
1. Alfredo, Ardila. “Advantages And Disadvantages Of Bilingualism.” SciELO, 2012,
This article gives a brief about advantages and disadvantages of being bilingual. Author tries to give us the chance compare both.
2. Allain, Sandy. “Are There Any Disadvantages to Being Bilingual?” My Language Break,
This article explains disadvantages of being bilingual specifically, on immigrants.
3. Depentor, Giulia. “The 5 Worst Things About Being Bilingual.” Babble Magazine, 11th
November 2015,
This article lists some disadvantages of being bilingual. In this article, the author talks to some of her bilingual colleagues and found that there is various problem that they have to face. This article shows us that along with advantages, there are some disadvantages as well of being a multilingual.
4. Giolando, Elaina. “9 Real Benefits of Learning a Second Language.” GO Overseas, 7th July
2020,
This article is mainly focused on the benefits of being bilingual. The author describes how being able to speak multiple languages can affect a person’s life by giving several examples. The author is an international project manager and traveled more than 50 countries. This article gives a detailed insight of how being multilingual is beneficiary.
5. “The Advantages of Being Bilingual.” FOREIGN TOUNGUES, 7th July, 2017
This article is mainly focused on travel benefits of being bilingual.
6. Vince, Gaia. “The Amazing Benefits of Being Bilingual.” BBC Future, 12th August 2016,
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20160811-the-amazing-benefits-of-being-bilingual. In this article, the author talks about the advantages of being a bilingual. The author tries to explain the difficulties a person could face in a new country if he/she doesn’t know the local tongue. Also encourage people to exploit brain capacity to learn to read and speak multiple languages. This article was published by BBC and written by an award-winning science journalist. This article tells us how being bilingual or multilingual can reflect that to which part of the world a person belongs.
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