Knowledge of foreign languages

2024 Author: James Gerald | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 14:00

Do you want to change your life for the better? You can do a new hairstyle. You can sign up for belly dancing lessons. You can get a new man. Changes for several days, weeks and even months are guaranteed to you. Do you want to change your life for the better forever? For the world to become brighter and wider, so that the social circle has no boundaries, so that your interests do not run into any barriers, so that you feel confident, irreplaceable, smart, delightful? Improve your knowledge of English, learn French, German or Spanish. What for? Not because it is necessary, but because from attending courses and proficiency in the language of Shakespeare, Stendhal, Remarque and Marquez, you can get real benefits every day, in a variety of circumstances. Here are just the main ones.

With English - running up the corporate ladder

The most popular language among employers is still English. However, proficiency in any other foreign language increases your chances in the labor market: although there are not so many offers for specialists with knowledge of German or Italian, there is less competition. One way or another, knowledge of foreign languages not only helps to quickly find a good job (about three times faster than those who do not speak languages), but also makes you more valuable and, therefore, a well-paid specialist. For example, the average salary of an accountant in Moscow when applying for a job is $ 700 for women with knowledge of a foreign language and $ 500 for everyone else. In addition, polyglot workers can count on business trips and internships abroad and various bonuses. They are entrusted with correspondence with foreign partners, they are invited to business negotiations with foreign guests … And there (who knows!) Your English or Spanish can take you to London, New York or Barcelona - for permanent residence and prestigious work.

A foreign language is your confidence in the future. Even if you lose your job, you will find a profitable place faster than your classmate, who was fond of macrame instead of courses at a linguistic institute. With languages, all the possibilities of freelancing are open to you - home translation, tutoring, the services of a personal guide and translator, which are always highly appreciated.

Do you have all the knowledge and skills necessary for a vacant position, but are not friends with languages? There would be a desire, but knowledge will come in the process of work. Advanced companies meet promising employees and create special courses in their offices or rent classrooms in language learning centers and invite teachers. This way, after work, employees can bridge language proficiency gaps. As a rule, at the end of each stage of training, the management encourages them with an increase in salary (on average by 10%), and after completing the course, one can expect that the salary will increase by about a third of the original.

The scientific director of the Runov School Mikhail Gorelik notes that corporate English language training is becoming more widespread, which indicates both an increase in demand for English-speaking employees, and the concern of managers for the high professional level of their employees: the staff who studied English at school and institute leaves much to be desired. Despite the understandable wishes of company leaders to teach employees business English skills, teachers are forced to focus on the basics of the language. After all, if a person cannot build phrases on his own and does not understand what the interlocutor is saying or writing to him, then knowing a few dozen specific words and phrases will not help the matter."

Improving qualifications with a dictionary

Foreign languages will also serve as a useful service in obtaining specialized knowledge. It is no secret that many textbooks by foreign authors reach us with a delay of several years, or even decades. If you can read the latest developments and the latest research in the original, your value as an employee will increase significantly.

So, your thesis with an indication of foreign sources will compare favorably with the work of fellow students who worked only with the works of our scientists worn to holes, and a quotation in a foreign language during the defense will conquer the attestation commission. The achievements of foreign specialists will fill the gaps in your knowledge and make your work more thoughtful and efficient.

You can use the resources of foreign online libraries, visit professional forums or download an excitingly designed tutorial from the Internet. I've seen this kind of training for cable industry employees - beautiful graphics, pop-up windows, entertaining presentation of material, a funny cartoon-guide, live examples and simple spoken language. Learning turns into pleasure, and knowledge is easy to assimilate.

Reading "Potter" in the original

English or French courses will help diversify your leisure time. Why wait until the next "Harry Potter" is translated into Russian? You can bring a book from your trip and find out what awaits the young wizard 7 months earlier than your compatriots. And the little son, inspired by the example of a smart mother, will start learning languages with even greater zeal.

You will have access not only to literary novelties, but also to the author's language not distorted by translation. You will be able to appreciate the English humor of Oscar Wilde, Jane Austen, Bernard Shaw, Terry Pratchett and the same JK Rowling. You will discover the unique charm of The Little Prince and A Hundred Years of Solitude, the original sound of Shakespeare's poetry and La Rochefoucauld's maxims. A world of literature without borders - what could be more attractive for an avid book lover? But for this you have to master the language perfectly. As for the adapted reading, which is now littered with shop shelves, you should not get carried away with it. Language teachers do not give them the best marks. According to Mikhail Gorelik, "this is no longer a book, but its pale shadow, and reading it is like eating surrogates."

Watching films in the original language is also an incomparable pleasure and an excellent opportunity to refresh knowledge, enrich vocabulary and spoken language and gather at the TV with a large friendly family of polyglots. And the film adaptations of famous works of English literature - "Pride and Prejudice", "Emma", "The Importance of Being Earnest" and others - a double pleasure.

To distant seas - no waste

It is no secret that travelers who know foreign languages, at least English, feel much more confident and comfortable abroad. This affects both communication with foreigners, and in solving specific problems (for example, calling a doctor, talking with hotel staff), and planning leisure activities (every tourist can visit a zoo or a museum, but not everyone will go to a theater or a musical).

However, not everyone realizes that knowledge of foreign languages is a real saving on vacation. So, an island vacation somewhere in the Maldives or in Indonesia will cost about one and a half to two times cheaper if you plan the trip yourself, and not buy a ticket from a travel agency.

It is only at first glance that the process of booking and buying tickets and booking seats at a hotel seems incredibly complicated. With basic knowledge of English, this procedure will take no more than a couple of hours. Most hotels and all major airlines have English-language websites on the World Wide Web. Here you can choose a suitable accommodation, virtually familiarize yourself with the type of hotel rooms, book (usually without prepayment) the apartments you like for the desired time and order a transfer to your destination. On the airlines page, you will find the schedules of all flights and a form for booking tickets.

The most difficult task you have to solve is to plan your flight so that you do not have to spend a lot of time at the transfer points. If on the way to the paradise island you have transfers in other countries and flights with foreign airlines, you can pre-pay for tickets for the desired flight via the Internet, print copies of them, and immediately after arriving at a foreign airport, get the originals from your local representative office. Most travelers turn to travel agencies in order to entrust the solution of these issues to their employees. And they overpay for flights, for a hotel, for a transfer, for the services of an intermediary, that is, the agency itself. So is it worth paying more? None of the biggest discounts will save you more than using foreign languages when planning your own vacation.

Proficiency in classic English or the local dialect makes excursion routes more accessible. So, a trip to ONE of the attractions of the island of Bali with a Russian guide will cost about $ 50 per person. And this is in a large group - from 10 to 20 people. Do you want the excursion to be individual - only for you and your companions - and include more objects? A local will be happy to show you ALL of the nearby attractions and become a personal guide for the whole day - for only $ 20 from the entire group (up to 4 people). Travel - in a comfortable air-conditioned car, stops - wherever you want and for as long as you like, stories - in accessible English, so that even a schoolchild will understand.

Sane - to a ripe old age

Do you want to keep a clear mind until the very gray hair? Learning foreign languages will help with this. It has been scientifically proven that people who are engaged in intellectual work and know more than one language are less susceptible to Alzheimer's disease, that is, senile dementia. In addition, a fascination with languages helps to survive the painful period for every working person when he retires and changes his once hectic activity for home peace.

This is how Mikhail Gorelik, the scientific director of the Runov School language courses, comments on this situation: “After 40-45 years, the mechanical component of memory deteriorates. However, the second component - the skill of logical connection and analysis of information - continues to develop. And it only gets better! (and even an elderly) person to mobilize precisely this second component of memory. For an elderly person, language training can turn into a kind of therapeutic procedure. First, in old age it is important to remain in the eyes of his environment an intelligent and worthy person. Second, language training. takes a lot of time, makes the brain work, get a certain satisfaction from intellectual work and, most importantly, create constant mental stress. This stress can be really saving: intellectual activity at least partially relieves a person of constant thoughts about his health and related Think of fears."

In addition, knowing a foreign language significantly increases your self-esteem. After all, you can easily explain to a stray foreigner how to get to the Internet salon, read the instructions for the newest MP3 player brought by a friend from Singapore, help a student with homework and help out friends when they have difficulties with translation.

For men, a girl who speaks fluently in someone else's dialect will always make a strong impression. No matter what the witches write about the fact that it is much more pleasant for a husband to know that his wife knows how to bake pies than to speak Turkish. After all, such a learned wife, not only abroad, will not let her get lost, she will shine with intelligence on a visit and will show children a good example, but she will preserve clarity of mind, logic and excellent diction until old age.

So you want to change your life for the better? So that even old age was a joy, and youth, youth and maturity were full of vivid impressions and successful undertakings? Start speaking a foreign language today! Knowledge of foreign languages is essential today! And in order for the study to bring a quick and tangible result, change your attitude towards the subject of study. Here is what Elena Samoilova, a senior lecturer at the Department of Foreign Languages of the KSPEI, advises: "Treat your studies as an opportunity to acquire a skill (by analogy with training for a driver's license). And after each lesson, ask the questions:" What else have I learned today? "And" Where can I apply the knowledge I have gained? "It is surprising that despite the fact that we study a foreign language longer than any other discipline (4 years at school plus 2 years at a university), we do not know it and we cannot speak it. why? Because language for our education system is a science, a subject of study, with all its rules, parts of speech, their functions, etc. But in fact, language is just a tool with which you can solve communicative, professional and personal tasks. Therefore, it is logical that the more tools in life you own, the more you can create and, accordingly, more achieve."