What are the advantages and disadvantages of learning another language?

Answer 1

In the English-speaking countries in particular, a foreign language may seem remote and unnecessary to many schoolkids. However, there are counties where one is expected to speak and read at least two foreign languages - for example, in the Scandinavian countries and also in much of eastern Europe.

Answer 2

The loss of value is a disadvantage of language, because it tends to benefit only native speakers. Another disadvantage is that translation is often required when used in settings that do not have native speakers.

Answer 3

Negative Aspects

As remarked above, empires do not usually take much interest in foreign cultures, and the United States is no exception. Most Americans only watch their own films, listen to their own music, read their own books[1]. This natural feature of empires has been reinforced in the case of America by cultural characteristics inherited from a British tradition of insularity and wariness of anything foreign dating back to the Middle-Ages. English-speaking cultures are essentially self-centred even though a minority is certainly open to the rest of the world. As a result, Anglophones tend to think that they are the norm, that the way they do things is natural, universal, implicitly better, and this gives the hegemony of English a colonial flavour. Albert Memmi's descriptions of the colonised and the coloniser's mindsets are surprisingly valid in the present situation.

The world seems to have has accepted the cultural, economic and political domination of the US. Even though it might arguably be better to be dominated by the US rather than by any other country, domination is intrinsically unpleasant and dangerous. America is certainly not a benign country, and the capital-friendly neo-conservative views circulated worldwide by some English-speaking media, e.g. so-called "independent" news networks such as CNN and Fox News and self-styled "quality" magazines such as the UK's The Economist, are certainly ethically questionable, not to say downright evil. Then again, other countries are no better.

There are other examples of very negative cultural domination and we shall now examine the situation in the field of academic research.

2.1 Research

English-language bibliographies, especially in such fields as linguistics, philosophy of language, cognitive psychology, Artificial Intelligence, didactics, etc. hardly ever mention foreign authors, particularly when their work has been published in another language. As a result foreign views are hardly present in English-language academic articles. This would not be a problem if other languages were also used in academic articles in other countries, as was the case a few decades ago. If such articles offered better views and solutions, English-speaking researchers would eventually have to take them into account, even if they were written in another language, or gradually slip into irrelevance. In the present situation, foreign views are ignored, even quite often when they have actually been published in English, as most non-native scholars very well know. Nevertheless, authors then will write in English in order to have a chance to be published in English-language journals, and this has had some unfortunate consequences. Writing in a foreign language is not as easy as in one's own and ideas may not receive optimal expression. Also, if the author's proficiency is low, papers may not even be given full attention. As a consequence native speakers of English certainly enjoy an unfair advantage. Furthermore, authors have to conform to Anglophone norms, both on the presentational and content levels. All of this leads to lack of competition and comforts Anglophone theories even if they actually need a challenge. For example, American cognitive linguistics is ubiquitous even though its philosophical foundations are dubious and deserve at least some debate[2]. It would not be so bad if native English-speaking researchers massively read other languages: they would then be able to circulate original non-English views through their publications. But empires do not learn foreign tongues.

On the whole, the domination of English in academic publications has had more disadvantages than advantages for non English-speaking research. Unchallenged Anglophone views are too often uncritically adopted and researchers sometimes neglect their own perfectly valid traditions. This may result in producing second-rate copycat research. Also, it has happened that the publication of original research submitted to American journals was postponed while the reviewers redid the experiments and published results under their own names.[3]

The time may have come to reduce the dominance of English in academic journals and to favour local languages. International communication might be a bit more difficult, but the quality might improve. Most linguists probably remember the heyday of Danish linguistics in the first half of the 20th century, when Louis Hjelmslev and other great linguists created the Cercle linguistique de Copenhague. They sometimes published in French and in English, but most of their papers were in Danish and nevertheless achieved worldwide fame and admiration. Nowadays, in Denmark, all linguistics journals are in English and the influence of Danish linguistics has all but dwindled.

2.2 Threat to Local Languages

Does English pose a threat to local languages? It certainly does. In the countries where higher education is done in another language than the local one, the educated end up being unable to express what they think and know in their mother tongue. When this happens, the end is nigh. The use of the local language then tends to be restricted to everyday life while the vehicular language of education becomes the language of work and study. The situation slips out of control when the vehicular replaces local languages in primary and secondary schools, and this is already happening under our very noses: educated and well-off people in many places send their children to all-English schools for the élite. But what is good for the élite is usually desirable for other people too, and this may produce a social demand for all-English schools for everyone. Local languages then run the risk of being dropped altogether and disappearing. This is the sad fate suffered by many regional languages in Europe and elsewhere. A language is safe as long as parents use it with their children and they do this as long as it is able to express what they think and know. It becomes extinct when a generation or two feels it has stopped being useful and might even be a handicap for their children. They then tend to use another language. This is what happened to this author's mother tongue, Alsatian, a Germanic dialect spoken in Alsace, a region of France. Our generation was educated in French and when we left university we were unable to express our newly-acquired knowledge in Alsatian. We stopped using Alsatian with our children and we used French instead because we felt French was the language of success and that Alsatian would only be a hindrance. This might also happen in Tanzania in a generation or two, as discussed above. Swahili might be the kiss of death for most other local languages.

[1] Such a cultural behaviour is known as provincialism.

[2] Readers interested in a critical view on cognitivism may, for example, refer to Frath 2004, 2005, 2007. For a critique of Neo-Darwinism and cognitivism, see François Rastier (forthcoming).

[3] See Durand 2009 for example.

Answer 4

Well, for one, a lingua franca enables one language to be dominant--to some extent--over the other languages. Following that line of reasoning, that language will also get some cultural dominance over the others. That's one of the reasons Esperanto was invented--it enabled trade without having a culture to back it up.

Answer 5

Advantages are that you can converse with other members of the culture.

Your partner & his/her friends could speak that language, & that you wanted to speak with them in their native tongue.

You can Wow your friends by speaking another language.

You could have some kind of work or assignment where you could spice up with more detail. ( Eg. you're doing a presentation on war in Japan you could write in japanese )

& that it's fun overall to know another language.

Disadvantages are you can struggle & make a fool of yourself trying,

It's difficult to learn a new language,

You may forget it completely in some years ,

It may not even be useful.

If you are determined & have enough effort, go ahead & learn.

If you just want to do it for fun, or don't have a particular goal, perhaps maybe not.

If you find enjoyment in the hobby of learning language then thats good, having a mix of determination & fun practice.

Answer 6

If you are not a high school student, then your only worry is money since taking vocational/college classes can be expensive. However, learning a language is still one of the best investments you can make for yourself, so there really are NO disadvantages. Not only will it help you get a great job since we are all competing in the global market, but it will also make you feel good about yourself. Knowing that you can speak a language that others cannot means that there is something special about you.

Answer 7

yes, there are.

Answer 8

There are no disadvantages of learning.