If you’re a student in high school, chances are you are required by your school to sign up and remain in a language course in order to receive credit and graduate. Though some may have found a shortcut around it, most have had to learn Spanish or French in their academic career. Some choose to erase everything from their knowledge, while others go on to become language majors. Wherever you are on the spectrum, allow me to tell you of my experience with learning languages and how important it is to me.

   I speak three languages currently — English, Thai, and a bit of Spanish — and plan to learn many more as I grow older. I grew up speaking Thai as my first language for about ten years, then learned how to speak English in the last six years, and Spanish in the last four. I’ve always loved language and linguistics in general, so learning all of them was an enriching experience. I can promise you that language courses can definitely benefit more than your GPA and your transcript.

   I would argue that, especially because we live in a state that is rich with Spanish speakers, it’s as helpful to take a Spanish course as it is to take an algebra class. Even if you are only somewhat conversational in the language, it is an incredibly helpful piece of knowledge to have socially and occupationally. You are more likely to be hired if you are able to speak more than one language, and the same goes for catching colleges’ attention and even meeting more new people in life. You can be hired as a professional translator for professional settings, ask for directions in a foreign country, see the world in different perspectives, and have a more enriched experience with your vernacular overall. Plus, according to Ted-Ed, it has also been proven that multilingual thinkers and speakers tend to gain more benefits psychologically.

   If a person learns a language at a young age, they have the chance to have a more wholesome grasp of its social and emotional contexts. In addition, research shows that people who learn a second language in adulthood exhibit less emotional bias and a more rational approach when confronting problems in the second language than in their native one. We have to work harder with our brains than we realize. Neurologically, there’s more activity in certain regions when engaging in a second language. Also, the heightened workout the bilingual brain receives can also help delay the onset of brain diseases such as Alzheimer’s by as much as five years (Ted-Ed). The effort needed to switch between languages triggers more activity in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex of the brain, which is the part that plays a large role in executive function, problem solving, multitasking, and filtering unnecessary information to focus. From being multilingual, your brain is more healthy, complex, and actively engaged.

   So if you are multilingual or want to be, congratulations! You should be very proud of yourself. Please consider learning new languages either on your own time or at school. If you’re ever bored out of your mind in a language course, remember that it can help you in a long run, and it is definitely worth it.