New Delhi, February 2023.

With a fast-paced lifestyle, a common challenge faced by most of us is to keep up with our productivity goals. Knowing how productivity is a key to success in both individual and organizational contexts, National Productivity day is celebrated on the 12th of February every year. With time, energy and attention identified as the key pillars of productivity, National Productivity Day serves as a gentle reminder for all to focus on improving efficiency, effectiveness and output.

Given the modern-day lifestyle, pursuing productivity in spare time is one of the most effective ways to not only achieve personal goals and aspirations but also develop/strengthen cognitive and social abilities. In the age of smartphones, scrolling through social media in spare time might not help bolster productivity but something like learning a new language can surely be a valuable investment of time. With applications like Duolingo gamifying the language learning process, learning a new language has never been this easy and fun. An ideal way to make productive use of time spent on smartphones in our spare time, learning a new language has a lot of benefits that can bring personal, professional and  social growth. Listed below are a few of these benefits:

Career advancement: As cross border collaborations have become a norm at work, knowing multiple languages makes it easy to connect with colleagues and clients from different countries. Speaking and understanding your colleague or client’s native language helps in effective business communication and hence having multi linguistic skills can make you the go-to person from your organisation for global operations. As the world continues to advance, the demand for professionals who can speak multiple foreign languages is on the rise. Hence why not use your time productively and learn a new language that gives you a competitive edge over others?

Enhanced cognitive abilities: Did you know learning a new language can help improve mental alertness and attention? Learning a new language helps improve cognitive abilities, such as memory, problem-solving and decision-making skills. It also enhances other cognitive abilities like higher creativity and problem-solving, ability to perceive situations in different ways, being better at observing their environment and spotting misleading information and many more. Talking about bolstering productivity, isn’t this a win-win?

Brain stimulation: Speaking multiple languages stimulates the brain as it requires the effort to switch between languages. Hence learning a new language is one of the best ways to  regularly exercise our brain. Another benefit of exercising the brain from constantly switching between multiple languages is less cognitive deterioration in old age. Many researchers have claimed that bilingualism or multilingualism delays the onset symptoms of Alzeihmer’s in patients by approximately 4–5 years as compared with monolingual patients through cognitive reserve.

Improved Communication: Learning a new language allows you to communicate effectively with native speakers of that language and express yourself more clearly. Additionally, it can aid in bridging the communication gap between individuals from various cultural backgrounds, enabling more efficient and polite cross-cultural dialogue. Furthermore, practicing speaking a new language and listening to it might help you become more adept at listening in general, especially understanding accents and dialects.

Increased cultural understanding: Language is the best gateway to a new culture as they are interlinked. One cannot learn a new language without having a clear understanding of the culture and vice versa. Bilinguals or multilinguals capture nuances conveyed in different languages effectively thus enabling them to have a more personal and richer experience. Knowing multiple languages also makes it seamless for them to become part of different cultures.

Now that you’re aware of the multi-dimensional benefits of language learning, this National Productivity Day, bolster your productivity by learning a new language on Duolingo - the world’s most popular language learning app. This online learning app has lessons for everyone, for beginners as well as advanced level learners, available in Hindi and other 103 total language courses.