The end of quarantine is nearing, and for all of us who desperately need to get out of the house and see someone other than our parents, siblings, or roommate before we go insane, this is GREAT news. Hopefully your quarantine was productive; hopefully you learned something new, but if that’s not the case, whelp.. we still have a couple more weeks of this safer-at-home thing—there’s still time. So, with that being said, I come to you with a quarantine idea: learn a new language.
Personally, I’m terrible at learning new languages. While I’m normally a straight-A-student, I passed high school Spanish with a B- and avoided taking any foriegn language classes through college.
But recently I came to the realization that bi-linguals are incredibly valuable to the workplace and incredibly sought-after, it’s a helpful skill in real-world personal interactions, and it’s a great additional skill one can add to their resume. I also realized how much I loooove a good challenge, and that I haven’t been challenging myself enough while binging How I Met Your Mother (embarrassing, I know).
So, I’m challenging myself by learning sign language and I encourage you to do the same. No, it’s not a spoken language, I know, but I’d argue it’s just as valuable. Like, how many people in the world can say they know sign language? And if that’s already you, awesome. But learn a new one.
Rather than redundantly binging your favorite show, keep your brain active, sharp, and running by challenging and educating yourself. It’ll be frustrating, sure, but I know learning a new language will prove useful in the future when it comes to job applications, traveling the world, and just every-day encounters.
The quarantine-days are nearing an end (hallelujah!). But “SUIT UP!” Make these last few days in quarantine productive, educational, and useful.