Benefits of Being Multilingual

My parents tried learning Kannada when they shifted to Bangalore a few years back. Not that anyone living in Bangalore needs to, but they tried it anyway. They didn’t get very far because all the people they practiced on (bus conductors, maids, shop keepers) would shift to a language that my parents did know once they realized that my parents didn’t know Kannada (you see, they didn’t want to lose business).

Which made me think: other than when it is necessary, is there ever any advantage to learning multiple languages? I never considered being able to read literature or watching a movie in another language as something worth the effort, so to me the answer was No.

And then I saw this article that pointed out that being multilingual could help you overcome certain biases. How? Well ok, it is really a 2-step process, but the first step was to be at least bilingual, if not multilingual.  The second step? Force yourself to think in the language that you’re least comfortable in. Wondering how that helps? Because thinking in the language you don’t know well slows you down (obviously). Which forces you to, well, stop and think. And once you pause, you don’t yield to your biases or mechanical phrases as easily as you might otherwise have.

Samuel Beckett used to follow this approach (he knew English well, so he forced himself to write books in French and then translated them back to English). He said it made it easier for him to “write without style” and as a result, his writing became more thought out.

For most Indians, Step 1 is already done (almost all of us know English and our mother tongue). Even though most people don’t write, Step 2 may be worth trying to see if it helps overcome biases or knee jerk reactions that we later regret. It’s certainly worth a shot.