Language Learning and Soft Skills

Soft Skills in Languages

Language Learning and Soft Skills

When you learn a language, you gain the skill of understanding and speaking a language.  That much is true, whether you learn virtually with Lingua Learn UK or in some other way.   However, there is so much more that tackling another language – learning French, learning Mandarin, learning one of a whole range of language – will give you.

Communication skills

Yes, of course you learn some foreign words.  However, you also become more empathetic to people trying and perhaps struggling to speak English.   You become aware of the need to avoid slang and to speak clearly, perhaps more slowly and deliberately with non-English speakers.  When the occasion demands, your language learning will enhance your ability to get your message across simply and effectively in your only language too.

Learning about English

Tackling another language teaches you a huge amout about your own.  A good go at, say, French or Latin will help enormously with your spelling and word power.  Learning something non-Indo-European, such as Chinese or Malay, will help give you real perspective on English and just how different it is as you become more aware of  the structure of English.

What it says about y0u

If you have risen to the challenge of trying to learn another language, that instantly tells people you are open to other cultures – which you of course can be if you are monolingual, but your attempts at learning another language show that much more definitely.  It tells other people that you are willing to try something that can be a bit tricky and that you can persevere.  It is evidence that you can master vocabulary – potentially thousands of things to remember.

Public speaking

Whether it’s a few words greeting a foreign guest or just simply the extra confidence and ability to speak clearly, learning a language is a boon to your public speaking skills.

Comprehension skills

If you learn another language, it shows helps you with the skill of extracting information even when it hasn’t been presented clearly; it helps you with the skill of listening carefully, even if you understand imperfectly, and it helps you with the skill of deducing meaning by using what you know and understand to fill in the gaps.

Teamwork

Speaking a foreign language is essentially a co-operative activity; you work with someone else to have a conversation or to make yourself understood.  In a language class, you practise alongside others and you use your instructor to reach your language learning goals.  A Lingua Learn UK language class is a great example of this.

Attention to detail

Listening to the precise details of sounds, checking spellings subtly different to English, applying patterns in grammar and structure that you have picked up – all these language skills show that you are likely to be precise when needed in other areas too.

Self-improvement

Learning another language in adulthood shows that you have persevered to better yourself; other things can do this too, but is there a more all-round sociable, fulfilling or career enhancing way to do it?

Soft Skills with Lingua Learn UK

Not only does Lingua Learn provide training in over 14 languages, we also have a great range of soft skills instruction for corporate clients.  We offer a huge range of things from Interview Techniques to Project Management, from Interview Skills to Public Speaking.  Check out our offer now!

About your blogger

Hello, I’m Tim – head of Lingua Learn UK.  I have been involved in languages teaching for over thirty years, principally in French, German and Spanish.  At Lingua Learn UK, I co-ordinate native speaker teachers of 14 languages, all university graduates and qualified teachers like me.