Teach Yourself Languages: Why Should You?

Believe it or not, there was a time when it was considered a mark of culture and sophistication to be multilingual. Nowadays, it seems Anglo-Saxon culture has become more and more resistant to the idea. Let's face it -- we're downright spoiled. With the mass exportation of Anglo-American pop culture to the rest of the world, English has become so pervasive that it's easy to assume -- albeit mistakenly -- that the world speaks English.

If an English speaker is going to be persuaded to learn a foreign language (speaking here of voluntary study, not required courses), he/she is going to need a motivation.



For me, the process begins with what I call cultural curiosity. If you are not curious about other cultures -- their language, their customs, their history, and their physical space, you won't be particularly motivated to study the language they speak. If, on the other hand, you find yourself wanting to know more about other parts of the world -- or even people of different cultures in your own home town -- you will be much more motivated to dive into the language that binds them together and makes them a distinct people group.

 Ever since then, my life has been one adventure after another of opening up new worlds with every new language I've approached. Granted, I have been blessed with a facility to pick them up: I was conversant in six foreign languages before I was 30. I did two degrees in French, which will always be my favorite; I studied German and Spanish as electives; and picked up Italian, Dutch and Portuguese simply through hanging around speakers of those languages or living in the country, as was the case in the Netherlands.

I could talk about the professional benefits of learning another language -- if you are motivated to teach yourself languages, you will reap rewards in the professional arena. But what has changed my life is the rich personal relationships that have formed over the years -- relationships that simply would not have existed had I not taken the step toward those people by learning at least some of their language.

I would not say I am fluent in each of these languages -- they vary from extremely fluent to getting by in a basic conversation -- but just knowing a few words and phrases in another language will unlock doors and open people's hearts to you. It is amazing how much people light up when they realize you are making the effort to learn their language. In many parts of the world, especially in smaller, more rural locations, people are genuinely enchanted with someone who is trying to learn their language.

I'll relate more of these experiences in future posts, but one that comes to mind was when my wife and I were in Florence, celebrating our tenth wedding anniversary. We were staying oon the outskirts of the city and didn't want to have to worry about parking in the city, so decided to take the bus. We arrived at the bus stop and discovered we had just missed one, and the next one wasn't coming for another hour.

For the first time in my life, I stuck out my thumb.

I believe it was the second car that stopped. It was a man in his thirties, and we immediately struck up a conversation, using my basic but decent Italian. Within minutes, he had invited us to his house for dinner that night. Imagine that happening in the United States or the UK. We politely declined, as our time there was so limited, but looking back, I almost wish we had accepted his invitation. Who knows, we might still be in touch to this day. 

I am in touch with many others whose language has been my doorway into their hearts -- and I am the one who is the richer for it.