Learning a second language is the ultimate form of personal development
Anyone who has ever reached an intermediate level in a second language will have had the Eureka moment — that feeling when worlds collide and expand, heightening your awareness and triggering a sixth sense within you which perceives serendipity and potential everywhere you go.
Yes, it really is a gateway drug.
Unlike other gruelling programmes, from punishing 5am workouts to excessive periods of monk-mode isolation (social reclusion), learning a second language demands the opposite of narcissistic self-reflection.
There is no place for navel-gazing, stoicism or hustle for the sake of hustle when learning a language and perhaps this is why it is often neglected in the world of personal development.
Here’s why it is undoubtedly the best form of self-improvement…
You will destroy your ego 1000 times over
You are obligated to look outwards and see yourself as a vessel of the language, a conveyer of information rather than a prize to be admired.
You will encounter abstract hardships that you can’t profit from by narrativising them into your ‘origin story’ of struggle because no one cares.
This generally tends to lead people to give up on a language or to push ahead on a solo quest to find out what lies in the cave beyond the dragon.
It all clicks when you realise that the flow state of using the language (in which time-dilates and the sense of self diminishes) IS the approbation you really wanted all along.
Your powers of associative thinking will increase exponentially
The longer you spend in the flow, the more your pattern-seeking and problem-solving abilities will skyrocket.
Once disparate concepts and unrelated ideas will begin to weave themselves together in your mind through commonalities.
This new-found ability for divergent thinking (thinking outside the box) will trickle into every aspect of your life generating off-the-wall ideas and moments of unexpected genius that will surprise even yourself.
(Luckily your ego has already been kept in check.)
You will be able to create experiences for yourself that money literally can not buy
When you get to the end of your life you will reminisce not about the stuff that you own/ed but the people that you met, the things that you did with them bizarre serendipity of it all.
Languages are the tool that get you a VIP invite to those exclusive moments.
As your language abilities grow, confidence follows shortly thereafter. When in flow you will begin inserting yourself into social scenarios in which you never dreamed of encountering.
Serendipity is key to a good life and it is not found in the gym, on an MBA course or in the warehouse of your start- up, but on the streets, in the cafes and bars and on the metro of the country that pervades your dreams.
You will challenge the internal monologue that limits you and your potential
That disembodied voice of self-doubt (and at times self-abuse) that we are all prone to encouraging — what language does he/she/they speak? In whose voice does it bait you?
When you start thinking in a second language you realise that the voice that you have been playing on loop in your mind is just one of many possible voices that can co-exist within you.
You realise that the language that we use is just a manifestation of our thoughts and vice-versa.
It is all programmable and can be overridden by new accents, voices, words and sounds onto which we can project our dreams and aspirations.
Re-code your patterns of behaviour with a new language and re-write the narrative about the type of person that you are.
You are not even a cog in the wheel and so there is nothing to lose
Depending on which language you aspire to speak, there will be anywhere between tens of thousands and millions of people who will continue to speak your language with or without you.
The language therefore owes you nothing.
It will continue to exist in all its technicolour magnificence, with its intriguing script, beguiling accents, awe-inspiring aesthetics and beautiful, versatile people.
This fills you with the right type of self-doubt.
One that motivates and inspires you to forge a path to give you access the nuances and intricacies which are the discerning gatekeepers to a galaxy of possibilities.
It’s all on you.
Freddie Kift writes about language, communication, flow, collaboration and technology
My most popular articles about languages:
Learning a second language will absolutely 10x your travel experiences
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