Bilingual People Are More Adapt To Learning Third Language

    A new study has found that people who know two languages find it a lot easier to learn a third language. The study used two different groups of sixth graders from Israel that were learning the English Language. The first group had forty students and their first language was Russian, cause they were from the former Soviet Union, and they also spoke fluent Hebrew for their seconded language. The seconded group used forty two students and their first language was Hebrew but they were not fluent in any other language. They researchers tested the students and found that the group of forty students who spoke two languages had an easier and faster time learning English then the group of forty two students who only spoke Hebrew. If you want please go here to view the article for more info.
    Knowing that it is easier to learn a third language if you know two already is a good thing for students to know. Since for some jobs now days require the knowledge of at least one other language students shouldn’t feel like learning a language is impossible for them. For instance I thought I was never going to be able to learn another language but after I found a language I had interest in I was able to actually learn. Japanese is suppose to be a hard language to learn but for me I found it easier then Spanish. Since the structure of Japanese is backwards from English completely it was a little difficult at first. But now that I am more used to the structure I find learning languages close to Japanese like Chinese and Korean a bit easier to learn. Knowing leaning a languages can actually become easier and fun should encourage students not to give up and look for the language or languages that are right for them.

Careers in Foreign Languages

One of the main reasons for going to college is getting ready for your future career. But you might want to look at all the requirements that you need in the career you want first. Now days some careers do require their employees to have foreign language skills. Because of jobs require foreign languages college students more than ever need to take foreign language at college. College students future careers may even require a certain foreign language or multiple ones which is why I want WVU to gain more languages for their students.  Some of the fields that require foreign languages are business, communications, education, government services, humanities and arts, sciences, technology, and travel services. That may not sound like a lot but there are many jobs that fall underneath these fields and not all the fields are even listed here. To help further explain the kinds of jobs that require language skills I will list some careers within these fields. In the business field are jobs like international law, sales, import/export, fashion industry, and banking and financing. For communications there are jobs like photographer, editor, journalist, advertising, film and entertainment, and translator. In education some jobs are tutor, university/college professor, textbook author/editor, English as a seconded language teacher, and missionary work. In the government services field there are peace corps, diplomatic corps, social work, Intelligence (FBI, CIA), and United Nations. Historian, linguistic, actor/actress, theater, singer, theology, and philosophy are jobs that are in humanities and arts. Under sciences there are jobs like technical translator, researcher, medicine, anthropologist, engineering, and archeologist. In technology there are software designer and tester,  web developer, technical writer, web communications manager, and software consultant. Lastly in travel services there are national parks, airline industry, car rental agencies, visitor and conversion bureaus, and airline industries. For a complete list of these please visit http://www.vistawide.com/careers/language_jobs.htm.

Speakers by the Millions

One of the main reasons why I want more foreign languages available at WVU for us students is because of our world going global. There are so many languages out there. How does one go about choosing which language to bring to their school for their students to learn. Probably the main thing people look at is which language is easiest for my students to learn. Another thing people look for would be which language is spoken by a huge number of people. Most people when they learn a language they want to be able to use it. So they look for the language that they think they will be able to use more. I have listed down below some languages that are spoken by more than a million people. The list is not the exact amount of speakers but a rounded estimate. I hope this list will let people see that there are more languages out there other than Spanish that would be worth learning. I don’t have anything against learning Spanish but it is one of the main seconded language courses that are offered about anywhere.
        Language:            # of Speakers:

        Mandarin                1,151 Million
        English                    900    Million
        Spanish                   500    Million
        Arabic                     246    Million
        Portuguese              240    Million
        Japanese                 132    Million
        Vietnamese              86      Million
        Korean                    72      Million
        Thai                         60      Million
        Romanian                 30      Million
        Greek                      12      Million
        Swedish                   10      Million
        Finnish                      5.4    Million

     WVU does cover some of the languages that are spoken by a huge number of people but there are so many languages out there just like there are people. So who is to say which language is the best or which one most people would want to learn. I know the language I really wanted to learn was rather Japanese or Korean. Luckily WVU does have Japanese but they don’t have Korean. Korean was on my top of my list but it is so hard to find a school that offers that language. For a more complete list please look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_languages_by_number_of_native_speakers.