Being a polyglot goes beyond improving your career or getting a nice job. Even the cultural extend of it doesn’t even scratch the surface when it comes to benefits. And while it may be impressive to be in a polyglot in the Anglophone world, this is quite a normal thing in many cultures.

Being a polyglot is a mental exercise, allowing you to be more aware and comfortable in using your own language , helping you express easily. Speaking multiple languages opens the possibility to exercise and use your brain capacity even further. When you learn the new words, the brain makes connections, growing further as you create phrases and learn the syntax. Each step means a lot of intellectual growth. Learning a new language also boosts your thinking and conversational skills. You’ll soon realize that you can browse your vocabulary easier.

And let’s not forget the cultural part. Speaking a new language allows you to experience a culture independently not as it is “supposed” to be experienced. It’s a totally different experience to spend time in a new country and speaking the language than to go only on the beaten path with a guided tour and speak only English (or French, or German).

Do you speak two languages or more? What are those? This week we challenge you to start learning a new language, regardless of how many languages you already speak.

Currently I am happy to say that I am native in one language (Romanian) and speak another fluently (English), but I also understand three more (French – thanks to classes in school- , Italian and Spanish – thanks to the TV I used to watch when I was a kid). I am also actively working on improving my Hungarian (which I started to learn as a child but somehow lost interest along the years) and Greek skills. Ideally, by winter I hope to be fluent in Hungarian and by next summer I wish to handle Greek at conversational level. I take on the challenge to work on my Hungarian skills now and I will report on my progress.

I must say I was impressed by an Armenian guy I met in the hostel we stayed in Athens. He was fluent in English and Greek, spoke pretty good Romanian, Spanish, Italy and Hungarian… I asked him how many languages he can speak and I think he stopped at seven.

» This week on BootsnAll: Articles you’ll read this week include: an interesting piece on planning to live abroad, the indie travel guide to the Yukon Territory, lovely information on things one of the writers learned from life and travel, info on the top 6 destinations in Latin America right now and a piece featuring 10 more fascinating cemeteries.

Week 43 of the Indie Travel Challenge is all about language.

This week we challenge you to start learning a new language.

Don’t forget to add your blog posts to the main Indie Travel Challenge page – and be sure to include a picture when you do (we love pictures!).

The Indie Travel Challenge is a year-long blogging project. Every Monday, we’ll post a new prompt, question, or challenge that bloggers can respond to via text, photos, or video. Respond on your own blog, and link back to BootsnAll so we can find and highlight the best submissions.

Check out the Indie Travel Challenge landing page for all information related to the event. You can see the week’s daily prompt, follow the hashtag on Twitter, share your posts, and check out submissions from around the world.

Read more about language:

• 10 Ways To Learn a Foreign Language That Aren’t All Obvious
• 12 Career Skills That Travel Will Improve
• Budget Language Study: 5 Alternative Locations Around the World
• I Came, I Saw, I Conjugated – Learning Spanish in Mexico

Photo by jovike