Indian students need to know more than one language: Here's why
India is a fast developing, economically diverse, multilingual country. Intercity travel related to higher studies and work has gone up tremendously over the last decade. The start-up scenario in India is booming, and most importantly, the whole world is eyeing our multi-million dollar regional language app and digital market. As an Indian parent, you actually have an advantage over parents from USA and China. You can teach your kid several Indian languages with relative ease, compared to parents from other countries who want their kids to learn Hindi, Gujarati, Punjabi or Bengali for widening career scope.
Why should children start learning languages at an early age?
Contrary to popular belief, it’s not tough for school children to tackle more than two languages, in fact, their success rate is higher if they are younger. Our brain picks up basic skills rapidly till we are seven years old; that’s how we have evolved. If you teach your children new languages before they are 10 years old, they will have close to native proficiency in these. Adults try to unconsciously impose grammatical rules and words from their mother tongue into new languages. Kids don’t do it, so they don’t just speak and write, but also think in each new language.
Languages make kids future-ready in India
The world is getting more competitive as the population continues increasing exponentially. Technical skills are no more enough to equip a student for success. Personality development and language skills are needed to get that extra edge.
A multilingual Indian is more confident
Confidence is strongly related to communication skills. Indians who speak multiple languages are often more confident than others. Not just high flying professionals and business people, this trait is demonstrated best by those employed as cross country truck or bus drivers, delivery personnel, shopkeepers in metro cities and small traders in Indian tourist spots. They often lack school education, but not communication skills. Now imagine the benefit if you teach multiple languages to your child alongside regular school education.
Languages are the gateway to empathy, tolerance and better business scope
We have already touched upon the business and career benefits. Learning new Indian languages also increases tolerance and appreciation of other cultures. Empathetic Indians are preferred by employers, and leads to better quality of life. In teaching your child a new language, you gift a valuable life skill.