Living in a global age, we as parents have a duty to raise kids who feel connected to their surroundings globally and locally. By bringing up global citizens, we are instilling in them values to be kinder, caring, and more accepting towards different cultures.
Let’s look at why it is the need of the hour to raise global citizensand bilingual kids in today’s age.
Who Are Global Citizens?
Traveling all over the world doesn’t make you a global citizen. To really earn this title, you need to recognize that humanity knows no boundaries, and human rights go beyond countries, cultures, and communities. People, who are true torchbearers of this term, enforce common goals that are beneficial to the entire world, such as human rights, environmental sustainability and poverty alleviation.
Benefits Of Raising Children Who Are Global Citizens
Let’s look at a few good reasons why you should raise a globally conscious child:
- Children who are raised with this mindset are more inclusive and accepting of other cultures.
- By understanding the human community, they will have higher levels of compassion and empathy towards others.
- By instilling in your children a curiosity of learning and education, you will be giving them maximum exposure to the outside world.
- Last but not least, it is more imperative than ever to make your children ready for a future where they can comfortably interact with people from various cultures and backgrounds. Bilingualism helps with it significantly.
Raising A Bilingual Child
Raising your child to be fluent in more than one language has more advantages than you think. This has been proven by several personal experiences and research carried out on bilinguals. Having the unique ability to converse and communicate across different borders lays in your children the building blocks for becoming a true global citizen.
Figure 1: Data is presented in percentages
60 to 70% people in the words are bilingual while 42% (60.6 million) are in USA. 3.8% people receive better salary due to bilingualism in USA.
Benefits Of Raising Bilingual Children:
- Bilingual children are aware of the fact that there can be several terms for one thing. This understanding and awareness makes bilingual people more flexible and understanding in their approach. Moreover, being open-minded is a common trait of global citizens.
- Traveling to another country is always a breeze when you know the local language. The more fluent you are in different languages, the more you can travel to different countries and communicate with the locals easily and effectively.
- Bilingual kids can quickly swap one task with another and are far more skilled at multitasking compared to monolinguals. A 2009 study revealed that bilingual kids were easily able to understand and respond to the changing rules of the study.
- Bilingual children have a higher intelligence level and are better at solving specific mental puzzles than monolinguals as it enhances a child’s working memory. Learning another language helps kids improve verbal and problem-solving skills, which helps immensely when starting school and taking tests.
No one ever said that raising children who are bilingual and global citizens is easy. On days whenever you feel your journey is getting challenging, just focus on how your hard work will benefit your kids in the long run.
