Name: John Clyde Perez

The Challenge of Many Languages: A Response

A multilingual society promotes mental health and opens doors to the world that
otherwise might not have been available (Nowek, 2021). It is worth noting that in today’s era,
multilingualism is common in almost all parts of the world and it possesses a lot of benefits in
the realm of employment and in promoting cultural awareness and long-term brain health. Thus,
it is only ideal for a society to be multilingual.

Workforce: Knowing other languages increases employability since companies nowadays hire
people who can speak multiple languages for the reason that their linguistic skill is useful when
negotiating with international suppliers and customers. Okal (2014) mentioned that
multilingualism provides a competitive edge in today’s job market because employers look for
fluency in the desired languages as an added advantage (p. 226). Therefore, being a multilingual
person in this century is a plus when looking for a job.

Cultural awareness: According to Okal (2014), “Multilingualism provides insights into the
understanding of different cultures and experiences, hence a multilingual becomes multicultural
in nature” (p. 227). In this regard, being multilingual bridges the gap of cultural differences and
enables one to be open-minded to other peoples’ beliefs and traditions since being able to speak
different languages changes one’s attitude and creates an expansion of world view.

Health: Multilingualism can delay the symptoms of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease by an
average of five years. In addition, constantly switching between languages results in a more
efficient, developed executive control system. As a result, multilingual people tend to be better at
multitasking and have longer attention spans (Mo, 2019)

On the whole, there is no doubt that a multilingual society is an ideal society given the
advantages it provides the people in terms of economic opportunities, cultural awareness and
appreciation, and health benefits.
 Works cited

Expatica International. (2021a, July 21). What are the positive effects of multilingualism?

Expatica. https://www.expatica.com/education/language-learning/multilingualism-

108148/.

Mo, J. (2019, March 25). Benefits of Multilingualism. globalEDGE.

https://globaledge.msu.edu/blog/post/55746/benefits-of-multilingualism.

Okal, B. O. (2014). Benefits of Multilingualism in Education. Universal Journal of Educational

Research, 2(3), 223–229. https://doi.org/10.13189/ujer.2014.020304.