Nir Ronen: January 2017

For obvious reasons, being proficient in more than one language has many advantages: it gives you the ability to communicate with people from various cultures, and it makes traveling to foreign countries much easier and more enjoyable. For some, learning the native language is not important. They travel for the food, the shopping, the sites, and not so much the cultural experience. If you want to truly immerse yourself in the culture of whatever country you’re traveling to, however, it pays to have at least a basic comprehension of the language.

Many people outside of the United States are multilingual and speak English as a second language. Most, too, will come to the aid of a tourist struggling with the language, however begrudgingly. If you’ve ever been to a country where you don’t speak the language though, then you’ve probably experienced the invisible divide that’s instantly erected when you try to communicate with a local in English rather than their native tongue. Nelson Mandela perfectly captured this experience when he said, “If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his own language, that goes to his heart.”

Imagine how much simpler it would be if you could read the menu without having to ask what something is, if you could navigate the streets without having to ask for directions in English, if you could see a play or go on a local tour and understand everything that’s being said, if you could buy a book written in the native language and read it cover to cover. Maybe you could even stay with a host family instead of staying in a traditional hotel or hostel or make an international friend. No matter how many experiences you add to your travel itinerary, you won’t get the full cultural experience if you don’t speak the language.

According to Michael B. Paradowski of the Institute of Applied Linguistics at the University of Warsaw, “Multilingualism is the natural potential available to every normal human being rather than an unusual exception.” So it just makes sense to study another language when we have these tools at our disposal.

If you’re an adult reading this thinking you’ve already passed the prime language-learning age and you don’t have time to devote to the study of another language, you should change your way of thinking. You don’t have to be fluent in another language, but it will change your entire travel perspective if you carry with you a proficiency of the language. If you know you’ll be planning a trip to a foreign country in the next year or so, why not get started now, spending a few hours here and there studying with a one of the many available language programs?

In addition to being great for general travel purposes, being multilingual has also been shown, through studies reported by the New York Times, to heighten one’s awareness. As a result of switching back and forth between languages and being aware of the differences between them, people who are multilingual are more aware of their surroundings- an obvious benefit of being in an unfamiliar place when traveling abroad.

Additionally, as the CEO of my own quantitative trading company, knowledge of a second language helps me run my business. Hebrew is my mother tongue, and I use it to communicate with employees and business partners back in Israel.

Nir Ronen

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