Language acquisition is an interesting thing in that there is a changing emphasis in how important it’s becoming to obtain a second language. English is the most spoken language in the world and is becoming somewhat of a universal language. In every country that I’ve visited where English wasn’t the first language, many people there spoke English as a second language, utilizing every means necessary to learn the language from taking classes to watching TV shows to listening to hip-hop. It didn’t matter if I was in South America, in Africa, or in Europe, people took it upon themselves to learn another language.
In the United States, studying another language doesn’t really happen until high school. If one chooses to, they can continue after college. About 20% of Americans are bilingual and many of those that are descended from people who retained the language from the country they or their parents immigrated from.
Yet, the world is changing. American isolationism is ending due to the world becoming more interconnected. Countries around the world are beginning to have an influence on each other. We see this artistically with music from Europe, South America, Asia, and Africa all influencing each other and the United States. People are beginning to immigrate not just domestically, but abroad as well. As such, learning another language is going to be something that may go from being a luxury for some Americans to a necessity.
Many times, people try to argue that Americans should learn another language from a competitive standpoint. If people in other countries know their native language as well as English, then they are ahead competitively. That’s great. However, it may be better to learn another language solely for the sake of being able to form relationships with people.
As the world becomes more entangled, forming relationships with others may come more easily and naturally when one takes the time to learn another person’s language. It breaks down communication barriers, is seen as making an effort to understand a language or culture outside of yourself, and exposes one to another person’s world linguistically and perhaps physically as well.
Sometimes when people travel, they travel within their linguistic worlds. If they speak French, they’ll often travel to other places that are francophone as well. Anglophone people tend to travel to other anglophone countries. Learning another language will expand that list of countries.
Building relationships is an important part of life and learning another language can assist with that.