Benefits of Learning French
When it comes to learning French, there’s all the obvious, often talked-about elements, such as being able to travel and engage with people while abroad, but less spoken about are the benefits of simply learning the language. From massive confidence boosts to cognitive improvements, discipline to all the new TV you’re now able to engage with, here are some of the more surprising benefits of learning French.
Confidence
If there’s one thing that’s going to help drive your confidence through the roof, it’s training in a new language. Learning just the bare basics of conversational French is wildly rewarding. Those first few times you really struggle to respond and remember your lessons will be tough, but it’s these experiences that build real confidence. You’re voluntarily putting yourself in a position where you’re effectively on the same language level with a five-year-old French-native speaker, and nothing builds confidence more than humbling yourself through tough experiences and growing from them.
Learn to Be Comfortable Making Mistakes
Show me someone who never fails, and I’ll show you someone who never does anything. All the people we venerate as a society were once failures, right up till they’re not. The winner isn’t the person who never makes a mistake, it’s the person who turns mistakes into learning opportunities. The trouble is, mistakes really don’t feel good. They trip you up and bring you down, and you feel so silly. This is just a mindset problem. Learning to be competent in a new language means you have to get used to being wrong sometimes, and that’s a hugely beneficial thing.
Enjoy All That New Content
If you’ve spent your whole life living in the English-speaking world, enjoying all that American and British television, film, podcasts, online content, etc. you might be surprised to discover that there’s an unbelievable amount of other spectacular content out there to discover and fall in love with. The only problem? Well, it’s all in French. Learning French gives you the keys to the kingdom, supplying you with a whole world of new media to enjoy.
Learn to Think in a New Way
Another surprising benefit is the fact that learning a new language isn’t the same as learning any other skill, it encourages deep, powerful mental training because you’re not just learning to think about something new, you’re learning to think in a new way itself. This, among other reasons, is why learning languages is so amazing for improving brain power, memory, and cognition.
Becoming a Habit Builder
When you think about people who manage to learn a new language all the way to fluency, you probably imagine amazingly gifted polyglots, who pick up new languages like they’re nothing. Super smart individuals. It’s not about that. It’s about habit building. Becoming the master of yourself and the way you spend your days. Learning to build habits, alongside a little discipline, will see you making real massive results, and this is something that translates to most things in life. Turn difficult learning projects into steady habits, and you can achieve some really impressive outcomes.