Your ability to speak more than one language will help you in a number of ways. First, retaining your home language provides a strong connection to your family, your community, and your culture. So there are personal reasons to maintain your home language!
Bilingualism will also give you new and different skills. Research shows us that bilinguals are great problem solvers and have a number of other skills as a side benefit of their bilingual brain!
Speaking more than one language will make you even more desirable to employers when it’s time to find a job. This is true for jobs of all kinds, whether they are highly skilled, professional jobs or other service positions. Companies that require customer interaction need employees that can communicate well with a wide range of customers – and that means they need employees who know different languages. In fact, a recent report stated that the demand for bilingual workers has doubled recently! Some states, like California, Oregon, Texas, and Colorado, have an even higher demand for bilingual workers than elsewhere in the nation.
Finally, not that you’re thinking that far ahead, but some research is showing us that bilingualism may also slow down negative aging effects on the brain.