The Growing Demand And Trends In Foreign Languages

With national economies getting more international prominence, the demand and need for foreign languages have shot up. The desire to become prominent in a language other than their native language is expanding globally where ambitious students are opting for various foreign courses. The desire has resulted in a total of 3 million foreign exchange students in the world today, a figure which is expected to increase to 2.6 million by 2020.

In fact, the proficiency in foreign language for graduates cannot be underestimated, as a recent reading from Influential Economists Intelligence Unit stated, “Even when recruiting for jobs in home market, almost one-half of all companies want the candidates to be fluent in a foreign language as they believe that multilingual ability is a key towards success.”

The language learning market is accelerating at a strong pace due to the globalization of the economy and the adoption of cost-efficient technology-based products. Language learning allows a person to generate critical thinking skills contributing to perceiving a completely different world.  People have started assuming the limits of language as the limit of the world.

Benefits

Learning different languages improves our understanding towards native languages and gives us the ability to communicate with people we would otherwise not have the chance to know. Also learning a different language is not always money motivated.

The benefits of a bilingual education are well documented such as aids, cross-cultural understanding, and even global awareness, enhancing academic progress by abstracting creative thinking and various other skills.

The ability to speak many languages often boost earnings, sometimes adding as much as 34% to a person’s salary in India followed by 15 and 55% in the United States and Thailand respectively.

It also increases the chance of college acceptance, enhancing career opportunities too. Companies need language expert for their business communication, live events, meetings, and conferences, or for documentation in their important work. Translators and interpreters are highly paid by such companies.

Languages in Demands

According to UNESCO, the world’s most widely spoken languages by a number of speakers are Mandarin Chinese, English, Spanish, Hindi, Arabic, Bengali, Russian, Portuguese, Japanese, German and French. Despite the rise of many non-western nations, English is still the language most commonly used for business, science, research and politics purposes.

Technology and Language Learning

Education and language trends without mentioning the impact of technology would be incomplete. Enrollment in online courses has increased, making schools to strive for increasing their web-based programs. Despite courses successfully making the transition to online instructions, some educators are still facing challenges in creating high-quality, foreign language courses offered exclusively over the internet. 

Ultimately, the language and methods a student chooses to study will depend upon their motivation, be it for future employment, further academic research, or simply personal interest. Discovering what drives each individual student is the key to ensuring his or her success.