Does learning Italian help an MBA student?

One of the most interesting things about learning a new language is that the benefits aren’t visible. Unlike working out, which gives you physical results, the benefits of language learning are in the mind. And scientific studies have proven this. The first surprising benefit is that it can prevent brain diseases better than any medicine. A study done around this shows that acquiring a language can delay Alzheimer’s or dementia by 4.5 years compared to the best drugs which only delay it for 6-12 months. By learning a new language again, you’re able to review the fundamentals that you originally learned.

Italian, which is part of the Romance language family, has over 90 million total speakers (70 million natives) around the world. But don’t let the small number fool you. This language did not gain its global recognition based on how many speakers there are. Its popularity has sprouted from its beauty, deep history, and the one-of-a-kind culture that Italy brings. Today, Italy is spoken as an official language in Vatican City, Switzerland, San Marino, and of course, Italy. It doesn’t stop there though. It’s also a minority spoken-language in Romania, Croatia, Slovenia, and more.

1. Easy language to learn: Italian may sound different when you hear someone talking. The accents are different, the culture is different, and the people are also different. But the language itself is much more similar than you think.If you happen to know Spanish, French, English, or Portuguese, you’ll find a ton of similarities to Italian. They share many of the same, if not similar vocabulary, grammar, and sentence structures. That’s why Italian is recognized as one of the easiest languages to learn for English speakers.
2. Competitive advantage at work: Given the demand and worldwide popularity of Italian, there are still only 90 millions speakers globally. In other words, you can categorize it as a niche language. However, that also means that by learning to speak it, you’ll stand out as one of the fewer Italian speakers.
3. You can explore nonverbal language: Nonverbal communication is important to all of us, especially when there are inconsistencies between attitudes communicated verbally and postural. The Italian language possesses a veritable dictionary of the unspoken. Learning how to gesture like a true Italian will be an important part of learning the language as a whole. This can be a pretty novel project for English learners of Italian.
4. Be a part of International Businesses: In any realm of business, it always pays to know the client’s language. As more and more companies are “going global” by opening offices throughout the world, Proficiency in Italian is an essential asset when applying for jobs. It will present you with an employment opportunity to work with a business that’s engaged in exporting or importing services or products from Italy to India or India to Italy. Moreover, you can also engage companies and act as intermediaries or their representatives in India or Italy. Adding the Italian language in your existing CV could open the doors to careers in the export and Import sectors as an International sales and marketing.

More and more people around the world are choosing Italian as a second language. Whatever your inspiration or spur may have, Italian is an advantageous language to learn. For a beautiful language like Italian, the odds are always favourable. The good news is, learning Italian is quite easy for English speakers, or speakers of other Romance languages. If your goal is to be able to speak confidently, we recommend checking out Multibhashi. We’ll pair you up with a professional Italian teacher that creates a personalized lesson plan for you, offering accountability and feedback, while helping you get to conversational fluency faster.