THE NEED TO LEARN A FOREIGN LANGUAGE

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Words are not just enough to explain the situations one could be in when one is in a foreign land without the knowledge of how to communicate with the people- you'd feel lonely and alone.

Have you ever been in a situation whereby you find yourself in the midst of people whose language is totally different from yours? you try to communicate but you can't. To even buy something you need would be a problem.

Sometimes you may not even be aware that you would be traveling (like in my own case) for you to prepare ahead of time, maybe to try to learn a thing or two so that when you get there you can at least be able to communicate.

When it comes to which foreign language you should learn, it's important to first of all take note of your environment. For example, I (as a Nigerian in West Africa) should learn French because French language is the official language of all the neighboring countries in Nigeria apart from the fact that French is one of the most spoken languages on earth.

In my own case, it was mandatory that I learn French because it was one of the items on the learning agreement I had with the European Union when I got the Africom Scholarship. When I got to Yaoundé (the center region of Cameroon), I discovered that it was a French region, to communicate was a huge difficulty for me. I wouldn't know how to price things in the market, most of the times I got to the supermarket, what I would want to buy would be available but I couldn't just mention what I want to buy until I exit the supermarket in disappointment. That was when I saw the need to learn the French language so I intensified my French course. Truth be told, learning French wasn't all that easy but it was worth it. Now I have certificates of courses I took that were totally in French. I can apply for UN jobs of which one of the requirements is that one must know at least two international languages. French movies, songs, and literatures are very interesting so learning the French language opened my eyes to the French world and I was able to see what I've been missing that really existed.

In conclusion, it is important to learn at least one foreign language because learning a languages opens up doors of opportunities and it gives you a different way of reasoning especially when you are getting acquainted with the syntax of the new language. 

 

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