Charlemagne once said, “To have another language is to possess a second soul.” There is wisdom in these words from the medieval emperor, acknowledging the profound benefit of speaking another language, but why bother to learn one?
As someone who speaks Spanish as a second language and a decent amount of French as a third, I have encountered a number of benefits from learning a foreign language, despite the fact that learning them has not been easy.
The first and most obvious advantage is being able to communicate in that language, both for the enjoyment and the practicality of it. It has been tremendously fun, simply to be able to speak in a language other than English, even if the people I talk to can speak English themselves. Even more than being fun, in cases with people who know only Spanish, I would not have been able to speak to them at all had I not learned it. Thus, knowing another language enables you to communicate with people you wouldn’t have been able to before. This makes traveling easier and more exciting, as you are freed to converse with anyone you need or want to.
Another practical benefit is that your language skills make you more marketable when looking for a job. For many positions, speaking another language means you are more likely to be hired, especially if that language is common in the community.
I would be remiss if I did not mention that classical languages like Greek or Latin open the door to the large corpus of classic literature. Historic books, poems, plays and other works come alive if you choose to learn one of these. I am studying ancient Greek now with professor Thomas Crofts, the director of the ETSU classical studies minor. My aspirations are, after having studied the language enough, to be able to read the New Testament in its original words. Thus a second language can be the gateway to enjoying the masterpieces of world literature without having their majesty filtered through a translation.
I have also found that learning another language helps me connect with and learn from other cultures. I’ve become more culturally competent and have a better understanding of where other cultures’ ideas may be coming from. When you learn another language, that doesn’t mean you will agree with how everyone else might do things, but I expect your eyes will be opened to see the world from more than just your perspective.
A perhaps unexpected result of having learned Spanish, at least in my experience, is that I feel my mind has been stretched to be stronger and more capable of thinking outside the box. Perhaps that’s because instead of just having English as its default language, my mind has been trained to be able to think in Spanish, so it doesn’t have to translate in and out of English during those conversations. Perhaps that’s because my mind has retained some of the innate powers of absorption that little children have. Whatever the reason, I feel that my mind is more capable of learning in general and taking on mental challenges.
My final reason for learning to speak a foreign language is that it makes you look totally awesome. In my opinion, there are few things cooler than speaking another language around people who can’t understand you. Maybe I’m just weird that way, but I find that skill set to be pretty cool.
I think it’s best to start learning another language when you’re young, at least before middle school. Your mind then is the most capable of picking it up naturally, but that doesn’t mean it’s too late for everyone else. From what I can discern, college students do have the ability to learn foreign languages too, though I believe they should be learned differently than by mere immersion. Your mind just works differently, which is why I hold that instruction and study of the language is crucial for learning it at our age.
It does takes effort, but the rewards pay off. Maybe you should consider taking a language class just for fun. At the least, try appreciating the next general education language class you take. You might find it more enlightening that you expected.
