A New Understanding

Even though this insight often comes as an unanticipated surprise, it really isn't difficult to see why such insight should come about. A language is a reflection of, as well as a key to, a culture. Learning a new language makes a mirror available to us in which we can see and understand ourselves in a new light. Learning a new language is not the only way to gain such a mirror. Travel or making a new friend are also time-honored methods, to mention but two out of so many. Each person can probably find some event in their lives that, had that event never happened, their lives and understanding of themselves would have been much poorer. Relative to speakers of other languages, the number of native English speakers that bother to learn a new language is exceedingly small. If you decide to become one of this small number, you may find yourselves rewarded in ways you had no way of expecting.

Any such event, when it happens too quickly or forcibly, can be overwhelming and turn sour. When the event is venturing into a new language and culture, this sour state is known as culture shock. While travelers will obtain necessary vaccinations and visas, spend time researching places to visit and hotels to spend the night, cultural preparation often gets ignored. Some who have lived long in cultures other than their own report that learning about the culture beforehand can be of immense help in taking the edge off culture shock. The same must hold true about study of the language, especially face-to-face with a teacher who is a native speaker.

Wikipedia on Culture Shock

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_shock

It is encouraging that recently some researchers claim that culture shock does have many positive effects such as increasing self-efficacy and helping improve self-motivation.

While learning a new language can create new pathways and open new areas in the heart or mind, there is a growing body of evidence that suggests learning a new language is actually profoundly transforming the physiological brain, creating new pathways and opening new areas that can be scientifically observed. There is evidence that bilingual children may be “smarter” than their monolingual peers, or that being bilingual may delay the onset of dementia in one's later years.

MSNBC: Being bilingual can delay onset of dementia

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16611042/

Brain Skills, UK

http://www.brainskills.co.uk/LearningAnotherLanguage.html

Society for Neuroscience

http://www.sfn.org/index.cfm?pagename=news_11112003a

While these new neural pathways may develop as a fringe benefit of learning a new language, there is a much bigger payoff. If one can somehow navigate the waters of cultural difference and somehow keep an open mind (come up for air), one may come away with precious insight that endures and grows with interest over a lifetime. While probably not for everyone, for those who are ready it could well be something not to be missed.