Learning Languages In The Summer Holiday Is Fun
The long days of summer bring additional hours to spend hosting backyard BBQs, enjoying long naps, and yes, enriching your mind by learning new languages. Considering there are currently over 7,000 recognised languages, the only real question is how to choose the language that’s right for you.
The good news is, there’s no shortage of fun languages to learn. You could choose a dialect based on your heritage or a location you’d like to visit. You might want to learn a language that will help you in your chosen profession. Or perhaps you’re interested in languages that are incredibly old, or surprisingly new.
What makes summer the perfect time to pick up a new language? Read on to see the benefits of using the season of sun and fun to learn something new.
Benefits of Learning Languages During the Summer
An obvious benefit of learning languages is the increased opportunity for communication. This is particularly advantageous if you plan to travel to countries where they speak those languages. Learning languages is also good if bilingual skills are expected in your chosen career field. However, there are many more reasons to tackle new languages.
Language opens your mind to new ways of thinking and expressing yourself, as well as understanding different cultures. Adding a new language can improve memory, flexible and creative thinking, and problem-solving skills. You’ll gain additional benefits when you choose to start a new language during your summer holiday.
Time to Spare
Our busy modern lifestyle is jam-packed with obligations throughout most of the year, but summer is a time when people tend to take a break. This makes it the ideal season for learning languages.
With more free time, you have the best opportunity to schedule regular learning sessions. Whether you take a class, seek out a private tutor, or simply guide yourself through lessons online or via mobile apps, it’s important to set aside a regular time each week for learning.
Learning languages not only teaches you new vocabulary and the basics of conjugation, grammar, and sentence structure, but it can also help to reinforce previous lessons. Thus, you don’t forget what you’ve already learned.
Certain times of year may require dedication to work deadlines, after-school activities for children, or holiday gatherings. During the summer, you may have more latitude to devote time to language lessons.
Enhance Holiday Travel
Are you planning to travel to a foreign country during your summer holiday? Why not get a jump on learning the local language so you can better communicate when you arrive? Not only will locals appreciate your efforts, but they’ll probably be happy to help you out by speaking slowly, offering corrections, and even teaching you new words.
Rather than relying on a language translation app, you can do the translating yourself. It’s a great opportunity to listen to locals and perfect your pronunciation to pick up regional flair. Plus, you can try out summer reads in another language to grow your vocabulary and fluency.
Practice with Friends
Learning languages your friends already speak can be a fun way to get to know them better and enjoy the valuable, real-world practice. You can learn vocabulary, pronunciation, and sentence structure from apps, but there’s no substitute for immersion.
While speaking with friends isn’t quite the same as living in another country for several months, it’s always helpful to learn from those with more experience, especially if they happen to be native speakers. Even better, your friends will probably jump at the chance to help you out and appreciate the extra practice.
Make a weekly date to chat over cocktails and appetizers. Or plan a trip with your friend group to a place where your new language of choice is spoken, so you can all practice and learn from native speakers.
So Many Fun Languages to Learn
Do you love the melodic lilt of Scandinavian languages? Maybe you’re fascinated by the guttural stops of Germanic dialects. Perhaps the challenging nature of learning Asian languages when you have a background in Romance or Germanic languages is appealing.
The world is full of unique and beautiful languages, each one providing opportunities to expand your horizons and better understand the diverse cultures and peoples that populate our planet.
While learning languages is fulfilling in its own right, it can also open the door to career opportunities that allow you to turn your passion into a paying gig. In other words, there’s no downside to taking the leap and learning a new language.
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