There are numerous cultural advantages to learning a foreign language. I can only list a few here, but I’ve tried to highlight the major ones.

• Learning a foreign language helps you to get insight into the culture associated with that language. Once you understand the language, that opens up a whole world of ways to access information about the culture and to learn how people discuss a variety of different topics. You can read books, magazines, and newspapers as well as watch news reports, television programs, and films. Most importantly, however, is that learning a foreign language allows you to converse with people in their native tongue, which will provide you with a much deeper understanding of their world.
• Secondly, learning a foreign language gives you a better chance of survival in the area where that language is primary. You can read the signs and learn if there are dangers like slippery floors, wet paint, high voltage, strong undertow, or vicious dogs. You can understand when someone gives you important information such as: don’t go to this area at night alone, the grocery store will be closed between noon and four pm, or the bus will be delayed for twenty minutes. You could end up stranded, hungry, or in trouble if you don’t have an understanding of the language.
• Learning a foreign language will also enable you to perceive the varied etiquettes of that country and its people. These could include basic manners and be essential to your success in that country.
• A language gives you a competitive advantage. It opens new venues for employment as well as education. Many employers are looking for people who can speak different languages so that their company is appealing to people all over the world! It also makes it easy for you to travel to many places.
• A language additionally offers you a short summary concerning cultural nuances of such things as relationships (marriage and family), clothing, and food. Having an understanding of the way things are typically done will increase your comfort level and help you assimilate into society more easily.

So learning a foreign language offers access to a different culture. Learning a brand new culture is like having the ability to relate and participate in a totally different world.

Photo by Quinn Dombrowski / CC-BY

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There are several different ways to say “hello” in French. Each way of saying hello depends upon the occasion, time, and person that you are speaking with. Below, you will find some different ways of saying “Hello” in French. We’ve also included explanations so that you know which one is the proper one to use depending on each setting.

BONJOUR (Hello or Good morning)

We say “Bonjour” when we arrive (normally before 6:00PM) in formal situations.

We can also say “Bonjour Madame” (to a female) or “Bonjour Monsieur (to a male).

We say “Bonjour Mesdames” when more than one woman is present and “Bonjour Messieurs” when more than one man is present.

BONSOIR (Good evening)

We say “Bonsoir” when we arrive (after 6:00PM) in more formal situations.

We can specify “Madames”/”Monsieur” or “Mesdames/”Messieurs”

SALUT (Hi)

We say “Salut” when we arrive or leave in informal situations, when speaking to friends for instance, no matter what time of day it is.

AUREVOIR (Goodbye)

We say “Aurevoir” when we leave in more formal situations no matter what time of day.

À BIENTÔT (See you soon)

We say “À bientôt” when we leave in formal or informal situations, but we know we will see the person again. It does not matter what time of day it is.

French Greeting Customs

It is the custom in business situations to shake hands when you meet someone and also before leaving. Kissing on the cheeks is typically reserved for friends, relatives, and children.

• Men shake hands almost exclusively unless they are very close with the other man.
• A man may kiss the cheek of a woman.
• Women often kiss each other on the cheek.
• Women sometimes kiss men on the cheek.

Social customs vary from one region to another. For example, the Paris region is rather strict and observes many more formalities than the south of France does.

As you can tell, there are appropriate ways to say “hello” in French for every situation. Whether you’re at a formal gathering or meeting with friends, use the proper way of saying “hello” in French and you’ll be sure to impress anyone!

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1. Parlez-vous anglais? —- Do you speak English?
2. Où sont les toilettes? — Where are the restrooms?
3. Je cherche la gare… — I’m looking for the train station…
4. Combien ça coûte? — How much does it/this cost?
5. Je ne comprends pas — I don’t understand
6. Je ne parle pas français — I don’t speak French
7. À quelle heure est-ce que cela ferme? —When does it close?
8. Pouvez-vous parler plus lenterment, s’il vous plait? — Can you speak more slowly, please?
9. Avez-vous une chambre de libre? — Do you have a room available?
10. Non, merci/ Oui, s’il vous plaît – No, thank you / Yes, please

This list of French survival phrases will help you to impress your friends or ask native French speakers important questions. It is very important you know the proper way to ask for a bathroom or directions and to let people know that you require assistance because you do not speak French. Not everyone you meet will speak your native language, and making the effort to learn even a little French will go a long way. Even if they do speak your language, people at your destination are sure to appreciate that you have tried to learn a bit. So whenever you decide to visit a French speaking area, even if you are not fluent in French, make sure that you at least remember our ten survival French phrases so that you can have a fun and safe trip.

Cover Photo by Ejk81 (Photograph: Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

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In the year 2012, it was recorded by the U.S. Census Bureau that Spanish is the primary language spoken at home by 38.3 million people aged five or older. That number is more than double what is was in 1990. The Spanish language is on the rise in the United States, making now a more important time than ever to teach your child Spanish. While there are many benefits to teaching your child any second language, I narrowed it down to 5 reasons why Spanish should be the second language you are teaching your child:

1. Cultural Understanding- One of the most important reasons why your child, or anyone for that matter, should learn Spanish is cultural understanding. It is important that we teach our children Spanish so that they can immerse themselves in the Spanish culture and learn about its values, customs, and traditions. Our sons and daughters are our world’s future leaders and it is imperative that we teach them about all the other cultures that exist so that they can properly interact with others they will come into close contact with in our society.
2. Traveling- Whether your travel plans are taking your family to Spain, Mexico, Argentina, or just across the United States (especially to places like California, Texas, and Arizona with large Latino populations), it is important that your child can understand the Spanish language. Your child will be able to speak with ease to the locals in these places and will have fun carrying on conversations in Spanish. Teaching your child Spanish also makes for a great reason to plan that beautiful trip to Spain that you’ve been dreaming about!
3. Career Opportunity- Teaching your child Spanish is a great way to ensure that your child thrives in whichever career path that they may choose. It is easier for children to learn new languages than it is for adults, so the earlier they get started, the easier it will be to acquire this skill. It is becoming increasingly important for companies in a variety of sectors to have bilingual employees due to the rising number of consumers who speak a foreign language. Spanish is so important to learn because of the large number of native Spanish speakers living in the United States. Your child’s job application will look much more impressive and will be sure to capture the attention of employers if they have knowledge of the Spanish language. It has also been recorded that people who speak a foreign language make more money!
4. The Growing Number of Spanish Speakers- In 2014, 470 million people were speaking Spanish as a native language. That number does not include the additional 548 million people who speak Spanish as a first or second language or the 20 million students who take Spanish as a foreign language. As if those numbers are not enough to convince you of the growing number of Spanish speakers, it is important to note that Spanish is the most widely understood language in the Western Hemisphere. As you can tell, a very large number of people currently speak Spanish and that number will continue to grow. This is why it is so important that your child starts to learn Spanish. As more and more people speak Spanish, your child will need to know the language to be able to communicate effectively with others.
5. Confidence- Teaching your child Spanish will help them to learn new communication skills which will lead to them being more confident! They will love being able to show off all of their Spanish knowledge to family, friends, and classmates. Children that learn Spanish will also be more confident in the classroom as studies have shown that those who speak a foreign language score better on standardized tests in different subjects such as language literacy and mathematics.

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• The first advantage of being bilingual is that you can connect with a larger population. Let’s say I am very fluent in my native language then I would only be able to communicate easily with those people who can speak that one language. The most powerful tool in this present world is networking and to do that you should at least know one additional language. This is especially true if you live somewhere that there are two primary languages.

• If you know more than one language, the number of opportunities you have in this world increases exponentially. In order to study or work somewhere that the primary language of instruction or communication is not your native language, it is essential to learn it fluently. Knowing that vernacular language will help you a lot in terms of your success, comfort level, networking capabilities, and general progress. Multiple languages, if you reach the level of translation and interpretation in the second language, are in great demand by employers and give job seekers a real advantage over the competition. Languages that are spoken widely in a number of countries are the most valuable assets you can add to your resume.

• Learning another language helps you gain more knowledge. When you know only a single language, you are restricted to what is published, broadcast, or translated into that language. An additional language opens up a whole new body of literature and knowledge, which gives you a more diverse world view.

• Being bilingual also widens your thought process in general, because you can actually think in two languages. Each language is connected to a system of values and a distinct world view. This helps you to perceive things in different ways and also allows you to draw on two separate knowledge systems, which gives you a competitive advantage in performing tasks over your peers who are monolingual. Bilingual people have two avenues to come up with solutions for problems.

• People who are bilingual are also often bicultural. They can get sarcasm, humor, cultural references, and idioms in two distinct languages. These nuances of language help bilinguals to more sensitively handle particular situations. Different languages have different connotations, and sometimes saying exactly the same thing in a different language can entirely shift the meaning and the way the speaker comes across. Bilingual individuals typically use their two languages in two different contexts, with two different sets of people, and who they are when they speak each language varies.  Thus the language you are speaking not only affects the way you think but it also affects your personality.

A language is just not something we speak but an extension of ourselves. So being bilingual person is not only is advantage for you socially, professionally, and academically, but it also expands your psychological side. I conclude with an old quote: “To have another language is to possess a second soul.”

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Photo by Ian Lamont / CC BY 2.0

1. It’s only a matter of time before Mandarin becomes the most widely used language in the business world and the Yuan (Chinese currency) is the business currency of the future. When most transactions are happening in Yuan and business conversations in Mandarin, learning the language would keep your child current with the future world economy.
2. Learning Mandarin is like opening a gateway to a new world. It will help your child secure a job, start a business or network with well-known businesspeople.
3. Mandarin is the primary native language in China, Taiwan, Singapore and Malaysia, as well as being spoken by people around the world. So your child can comfortably work, study or do business in these places. Nearly all multi-national companies that are headquartered in America do business in China, so learning Mandarin would be an instant boost to your kid’s career, as he or she would have an edge over monolingual English speakers.
4. Learning Mandarin will give your kid an insight into the five thousand year old Chinese culture and history. Language is a roadmap of a culture; it tells you about how the people originated and where they are heading to. This cultural knowledge will be invaluable in any interactions with Chinese people.
5. This language will help you prepare your kid for the future and also make him more competitive. Learning Mandarin will also help him or her to meet new people, improve your work skills, and develop personal relationships.
6. A different language is a window into a different world view. So if your child learns Mandarin, he/she will simultaneously learn to look at life from a different perspective. This versatility is essential in today’s global culture.

I conclude by saying “The limits of your language are the limits of your world, so spread your wings and extend your world.”

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Photo by Emma Taylor / CC BY 2.0

It’s important in today’s global world to know more than one language. English is a good choice to focus on achieving fluency in if it is not your first language, and there are many reasons that I would recommend learning English as a second language. Five of them are listed below.

1. As you probably recognize, English has been accepted as a regular language for communication throughout the planet. Therefore, expressing your thoughts in English gives them a higher chance of being disseminated. English is the best medium to showcase your thoughts and ensure the widest level of understanding.
2. Learning English can also provide you with a lot of employment opportunities, as English is a common language within the business world. There are many who graduate each year and have a relatively low chance of obtaining a job, which is primarily due to the lack of fluency in English. This is seen as a handicap and growth inhibitor for many employers, particularly multi-national corporations that offer the most desirable job opportunities.
3. Technology is growing at a very fast pace, and the majority of the gadgets are based mostly on English as a default language, so knowing it is essential in those fields in particular. For the current generation, who have grown up with technology, it is that the key to everything and most work is done using technology. It is impossible in this day and age to avoid technology or its main medium of communication, which is English.
4. English is also a useful skill if you have any plans of going abroad for studies or business because it is used in most of the countries to some extent. To study abroad prospective students must take a test which is referred to as TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) or IELTS (International English Language Testing System), which certifies that you have a decent fluency in English. Only those with a high enough score on tests such as these will be admitted to American, British, Australian, and Canadian universities, as the primary language of instruction in these places is English and the universities need to be assured that the students they admit are capable of keeping up with the work and performing competently.
5. Lastly, English allows you access to a wide range of data as many books, especially scientific and academic books, are written in English in order to reach a broader population of readers than would be possible in a vernacular. As a matter of reality, most of the famous news channels are being telecast in English. Therefore, in this current world, English is for many a compulsion rather than an elective skill. As English is everywhere in the globe, it would be foolish not to try to learn English as a second language.

Other excellent choices of languages to learn, if English is your first language, would be the others that are most spoken around the globe, such as Chinese, Hindi, Arabic, French, Spanish, and German. Of course, you may have personal or business reasons for learning any number of less widely spoken languages, but the key point is that one language is no longer sufficient for anyone in today’s global climate.

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Photo by Jasvipul Chawla

If you have any plans of expanding your business in India it’s always better to know an Indian language. It will help you to understand your customers and employees better as well as give you an opportunity to connect with their emotions. A language is more than just a tool for communication. It depicts the culture of a place with all its values and beliefs. It not only helps you to know who your foreign employees or customers are, but also what they want. As an entrepreneur it’s essential to know what your customers want so you can cater to their changing needs. You also need to understand your employees so that you can effectively communicate your needs and expectations. You might think that because people speak English, you can just use that to talk to and understand them. The problem is that when you to talk to most Indians in English you are marking yourself as an outsider or stranger, and they may or may not trust you. But when you speak in an Indian language you will be recognized you as one of them. So why target India to expand your business to? Two reasons. One, the Indian market is very vast, with the second largest population in the world. Two, there are many educated, competent employees to be found, and the cost of living is much less than in the West.

Moreover, there are Indians all over the globe, including the second in charge of Google (Sundar Pichai). So it not only helps you to target people in India, but also to make excellent business connections in the rest of the world. After Chinese, Spanish, and English, Hindi is the most widely spoken language in the world. It is spoken by around 260,000,000 people, a number that is likely to increase in the upcoming years. This will help you have a new entry point into the market.

And if you come to India on a business visit, you definitely need to know Hindi to survive here unlike other foreign countries. As many people in India are illiterate, you can’t converse with them unless you know a local language and preferably Hindi.

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Photo by BenLaParole

There are a number of different prepositions in English grammar and each has specific uses. It can be really confusing for learners of English as a foreign language to keep them straight. Additionally, many native speakers of English do not use prepositions correctly, which can be doubly confusing. There are more than one hundred basic grammar prepositions in the English language, but this post will focus on a few representative ones. Most prepositions locate subjects in time or place, so they answer the questions “When?” or “Where?” There are, of course, exceptions. Prepositions, as it says in the name, are positioned before (pre-) the descriptive phase. In basic English grammar, this is called the “prepositional phrase.” Other languages may use post-positions instead, which would come after the descriptive phrase. This series will describe basic English grammar prepositions and give examples of the correct way to use them.

The simplest English grammar prepositions answer the questions “Where” and “When” in a straightforward manner. I have put the prepositions in each sentence in italics.

Example 1

Where should I put the date on this letter?

In a business letter, the date should come above the salutation.

(This means that the date comes first on the page, followed by the greeting.)

Example 2

Where is your son?

My son is at home with his father.

(So the son and the father are not with the mother, wherever she is, but are at their house together.)

Example 3

Where are my socks?

They are behind your underwear in the top left drawer.

(So the top left drawer contains both socks and underwear, and the underwear are in front of the socks, hiding them from you.)

Example 4

Where is my library book?

It is in the stack on the table, beneath the novel I am reading.

(So there are a number of books on the table, stacked on top of one another. The novel I am reading is on top, and you have to pick it up and look under it to find your library book.)

Example 5

Where are my glasses?

They are right beside you, on the night stand.

(The person is likely in bed, and set his/her glasses down on the table next to the bed the night before.)

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6. Talk to someone who is fluent in both your native and target language. This person has likely experienced exactly what you are going through and will be able to anticipate problems and confusion.
7. Figure out what kind of learner you are. I’m a visual learner. I need to see something written down in order to remember it and to pronounce it properly. I also remember things in the context in which I originally saw them. You may have better luck learning a foreign language if you hear things or can fit them into a song. Figure it out and replicate it as you continue to learn.
8. Do dictation exercises. I don’t care what kind of learner you are. This helps everyone and is hard for everyone. Listen closely when people speak and try to write down what they say. It will train you to hear different accents and also enable you to follow through with the next tip.
9. Buy a dictionary and use it. When native speakers come across a word they don’t know, they look it up. Do the same. An added benefit is that dictionaries very often include common usages of a word and sample sentences. If you hear a word you want to look up, use your dictation skills and try to find it. It may take a few tries (for example, was it a dental t or a retroflex t?) to find it, but you’ll get it eventually and maybe learn a few new words along the way!
10. Start from the beginning. If you are reading this, you are probably learning a foreign language as an adult, with adult textbooks and learning strategies. Take some time to learn like a kid. Play nursery rhyme videos on youtube, get the first grade book for native speakers learning that language. Sure, the animal sounds you learn may not be useful in your everyday conversations about where’s the bathroom and how do you get to this tourist attraction, but it they will give you useful insights into the culture.

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