Learning a foreign language will give you a competitive edge

By Michael Oriedo

As the world becomes a global village and organisations seek multi-talented people, knowing a foreign language is becoming a rule, rather than an exception.

It is now advantageous to speak languages such as Spanish, Japanese, Chinese, Arabic, Italian, French and German.

Fred Odhiambo, the Director of Regional Centre for Tourism and Foreign Languages says learning a foreign language has ceased to be a preserve for people in the hospitality industry or those working for international organisations. "We used to offer foreign languages mainly to students studying tourism, air travel and hotel management, but the trend has changed. Knowledge in foreign languages is becoming inevitable for everyone," he says.

Director Fred Odhiambo [PHOTO: MICHAEL ORIEDO/STANDARD]

Several stages

Language lessons are both practical and theory. In the former, students learn oral skills, which involve pronunciations and translations.

In theory students learn how to write words and construct sentences. "These are not easy tasks. Some students find the going in some languages tough," he says.

Odhiambo isolates Chinese and Japanese as among languages that students find difficult. "The Chinese alphabet mainly looks like symbols, which one must know to understand meanings of words in the language. This gives people difficulties leading to drop outs," he says.

To make learners understand foreign languages better, Odhiambo says a school must engage students in exercises that expose them to speakers of the language they are studying. These include interactive sessions in cooking and games.

"We realised involving them in activities like dancing salsa for those studying Spanish or preparing French cuisines for those studying French helps them comprehend the languages better," he says.