6 Reasons Why Bilingual Education Is Important

Bilingual education might seem scary to some since it requires you to learn using two different languages, one of which you are not a native speaker of.

But although it might seem overwhelming, bilingual education comes with a lot of unique benefits that far outweigh the added difficulty in many people’s opinions.

I’m going to talk about some of those benefits today, but first, I want to cover a few commonly asked questions about bilingual education.

How Does Bilingual Education Work?

Bilingual education is a type of learning system in which the student learns new materials through a combination of their native language and a secondary language.

Depending on the system, the student, and a lot of other variables; the native language might be used a lot more than the secondary one or vice versa.

Is Bilingual Education Hard?

Bilingual education is definitely challenging, and some people might find it more so than others.

The difficulty for each person will vary depending on a lot of factors; including the student’s passion for learning a second language.

But overall, yes. Bilingual education is considered to be quite difficult in general.

1 – It Helps The Student To Learn A Second Language

Learning a second language is definitively challenging, especially if you’re trying to do it on your own.

But one of the great benefits of bilingual education is that it allows the student to learn the language faster because it’s an active part of their daily lives.

And since bilingual education mostly takes place in children’s schools, it’s even more effective due to kids’ brains being more receptive to secondary languages.

In fact, learning a secondary language that early can actually set them up to be able to learn additional languages faster as adults.

But even if they choose to only master their native language plus the secondary language they chose in school, chances are that they’ll be fluent in both.

2 – It Helps Students See Other Cultures With A More Open Mind

As I just mentioned, kids absorb everything a lot faster than adults. And this applies to different cultures as well.

If they’re learning a secondary language in school then it’s likely they’ll also learn about the culture of the language as well.

And there’s no better time to do it than when they’re young because it means they’ll go into it with an open mind.

This will lead to them being considerably more tolerant and well-rounded adults, who will likely be interested in absorbing other cultures as they mature.

3 – It Will Help The Student To Be More Comfortable Traveling

Students who have learned a secondary language and have absorbed that culture will likely feel at home in countries that relate to it.

And because they’ll be so mentally flexible, they’ll probably even be comfortable traveling to places where they don’t know everything.

This is important for their future, not only for vacations, but also for potential work trips.

Many companies would appreciate having an employee who could navigate different cultures and countries with ease, since they’d be perfect for business trips abroad.

Which leads me to the next reason why bilingual education can be so important…

4 – It Will Open Up Career Opportunities

With the job market becoming increasingly more saturated, and only projected to become more so, it’s important to have an upper hand when you’re job hunting.

And kids who are fluent in two languages, and have something as challenging as bilingual education under their belt, are likely to stand out to employers.

Those two things not only come with obvious benefits to companies; but also show that the person in question is intelligent, hardworking, and highly adaptable.

5 – It Might Help Improve Social Skills

The act of communicating in two different languages can give students more confidence when it comes to human interaction.

Plus an understanding of two languages, two cultures, etc, can result in a very emotionally aware student.

And as we all know, emotional intelligence is a big part of effective social skills.

Additionally, being able to communicate in a different language opens up a lot of social opportunities where the student can further practice their social skills.

6 – It Might Improve Memory

I briefly touched on this benefit earlier when I mentioned that people who learned a secondary language during childhood can learn other languages faster in the future.

But I’ll elaborate a bit more on it now. And if you’d like to read even more then check out this article by Texas A&M University since they elaborate further on the topic!

Essentially, the act of learning a second language (especially when the brain is still growing) can actually improve brain health in a variety of ways.

This can lead to the student having a better memory, and better recollection abilities, for years after they attended bilingual school! Possibly throughout their entire lifetime.

Is Bilingual Education Worth It?

Now that I’ve talked about why bilingual education is so important to many people, I want to give my final opinion on it.

I think that bilingual education is worth it if the benefits outweigh the difficulty in your personal opinion.

Bilingual education is perfect for some people, but it won’t be perfect for everyone.

So while I do think that bilingual education is important, it’s also worth noting that whether or not someone partakes in it should be a personal decision.