Learning a new language: benefits

Learning a new language confers a number of benefits. The magnitude of the benefits depends on the choice of language, how well the learner learns the language, and the learner's circumstances and goals. The broad categories of benefits, including the strong ones and some more dubious ones, are listed below.

Ability to passively partake of the resources generated in that language

Learning a new language allows one to partake of a number of written and oral products in the language, including:

• Literature: poems or prose, fiction or nonfiction
• Music
• Movies and videos