If you could’ve done something else with that time, you would have. If you could’ve been somewhere else, you would have. But no…you had to be there until the bell rang.

Well, those days are over. As adults, we have the freedom to utilize our time towards whatever goals we desire. You still have old memories of being stuck in a boring language class. Ironically, however, you now have this desire as an adult to speak another language. You see the importance of speaking another language in social settings. Not to mention all the financial benefits of being bilingual in the workplace. So what do you do?

Conversational Spanish Classes in Houston

You come and sit in on one of our conversational Spanish classes in Houston…that’s what you do. Send us an email or give us a call (713 419-1035), let us know that you’re coming and join us for a free, no-obligation lesson. It gives you a good idea of what to expect in one of our courses. Meet the teacher and some other students. Look through the textbook and see just how easy and fun it is to learn Spanish in a conversational setting.

One of the key factors in learning a language is to put it into practice. In a post titled How to Learn a Language, by Prime Instruction & Language, the author refers to the confidence that a student establishes in the target language by simply conversing in the new language with others:

“The big advantage of learning in a class setting is the opportunity to try and use the new language with others. By engaging in several contrived conversations with the teacher and other students, you establish a critical confidence that your understanding and your expressions of the language are accurate and good.”

All the memorization in the world won’t lead to conversational skills. And even if it could, the fact is…memorization is boring. Think about it…if the end goal of a language student is to converse with others in the target language, shouldn’t most of his study efforts involve conversing with others in that language instead of trying to learn alone? We certainly think so 🙂

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Anna Magee’s article (link) in the Telegrap highlight a Harvard study in which “super-agers” were shown to have brains that resemble those of people a third their age.

“In the next 10 years we’re going to get more and more evidence about the things people can do to prevent Alzheimer’s and dementia,” says Craig Ritchie, professor of the psychiatry of ageing at the University of Edinburgh who is leading the trial.

Brain stimulation, not brain training, is essential in preventing cognitive decline, says Prof. Ritchie. The key to the former is social interaction, he says.

“Chatting, being socially interactive with friends and in a work environment is probably what lights up your brain more than anything else. I often get asked, ‘I do lots of crosswords and Sudoku, will that protect me from dementia?’”

But the evidence now suggests that taking up new hobbies and interests that challenge you are more beneficial. “So, if you’ve done crosswords your whole life, learning to play the piano at 65 is going to have more benefit on your cognitive health than keeping doing things you have always done.”

Read the full article at the The Telegraph

The post Social Interaction Prolongs Brain Function appeared first on Gonzales School of Languages.

In Helena Negru’s article at Elite Daily (link), she describes them as “digital nomads” who will go wherever necessary to find work. In many cases, it requires that they learn a foreign language, which adds to their value in the job market. Negru continues:

Even digital nomads are looking to improve their language skills, and they are taking up different courses in order to improve their value on the job market. When you are already among foreigners, it’s easier to pick up the language, but not all languages are as easy to learn as Spanish and Italian.

Studying a foreign language is a great career move for Millennials.

It’s a big plus for a graduate and any worker who wants to secure a job in the highly competitive and limited job market. Knowing how to speak a different language what makes you stand out of the crowd, especially in US, where most people only speak English and a bit of Spanish. Millennials understand this better than any other generation, yet few of them actually take the lead and enroll foreign language courses.

Another issue for the Millennial students is the fact they still look at foreign language classes as something they need to check in order to get more credits. So, few of them really think about which language to learn in order to secure a high-paying job.

For example, French is a great option for an American Millennial because there are many companies which look for French speakers in US. The number of American workers who can speak it is also very low. The same goes for Italian, Portuguese and Asian languages.

Speaking of Asian, China has a large economy, where the demand for professionals who speak Mandarin is very high. If you learn Chinese, you might change your life forever by relocating in Asia.

Read the full article at Elite Daily

The post Millennials Are Moving Overseas to Find Work appeared first on Gonzales School of Languages.

In Sean Kim’s article at Lifehack.org, (link), he explains how learning a language has been shown to add 10-15% to your wage. Of the valuable languages to learn, he ranks them in the following order:

1. German
2. French
3. Spanish
4. Mandarin
5. Arabic

Here’s more from the Lifehack article:

This shows that learning a language is a wise investment for anyone, at any age, whether you’re preparing to enter the workforce or looking to expand your opportunities.

Assuming an average salary of around $45,000, a 2% “language bonus” average over 40 years, and also a 1% raise annually, you’d have an extra $67,000 by the time you retire. Since you can learn a new language quickly with the right solution, that’s a pretty good investment of your time.

What’s more, salary bonuses vary depending on the exact language in which you’re proficient. Here’s a quick breakdown of a few different secondary languages and their annual bonuses as reported by The Economist:

• Spanish — 1.5 percent bonus
• French — 2.3 percent bonus
• German — 3.8 percent bonus

This means that you can make an additional $50,000 to $125,000 just for knowing how to speak a foreign language!

Read the full article at Lifehack.org

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