Living in a country as an individual from an ethnic minority, there exists a strong motivation to maintain one’s culture and language and to pass the richness of the culture to the next generation. It is very difficult to maintain a culture and possess the soul of the culture, without possessing the language, as Charlemagne remarked more than 1000 years ago.
There are many reasons to learn and maintain the Greek language and culture. How many countries have the glorious history and culture that Greece has? Greece illuminated the world with the light of knowledge. The Greek language is still at the root of many other languages in the world, amongst them French and English. Therefore, learning and mastering Greek benefits an individual and facilitates his or her use and learning of the English and the French language.
There exist many other benefits that come with learning and using more than one language. There are many studies and research that support the case that multilingual individuals have an edge throughout life. Multilingualism has been proven to help a child develop superior reading and writing skills, multilingual children have overall better analytical, social, and academic skills than their unilingual peers. An extensive study conducted by a linguist at Dalhousie University, showed that multilingual children had stronger cognitive skills that helped them attain on average better grades, attain higher levels of education and earn more money than their unilingual peers.
Children and people that learn and speak more languages develop an appreciation for other cultures and an innate acceptance of cultural differences. As adults, multilingual individuals are more cosmopolitan and more willing and open to experiencing what other cultures have to offer.
Career prospects are multiplied many times over for people who speak a greater number of languages as the world has become smaller and more interconnected. People and companies that are involved in international business look to hire people that speak a greater number of languages and will be able to relate to foreign clients and contacts.
Other benefits to learning a language include:
- Being more efficient communicators.
- Being consistently better able to deal with distractions, which may help offset age-related declines in mental dexterity.
- Having a better ear for listening and sharper memories.
- Being able to learn languages more quickly and efficiently particularly if an individual speaks Greek or Latin given that these languages influenced most other western languages.
- Being better problem solvers, gaining multiple perspectives on issues at hand.
They say that knowledge is power. Our school is unique in Quebec in it is amongst the very few private schools that empower our children with the knowledge of multiple languages and the benefits that come with this skill.
