There Is No Reason Not To Learn A Language

Learning a language is one of the most enriching things you can do. Being able to understand and communicate with people from other cultures can open your eyes to new concepts, ways of life, and opporotunities.

Those who say they are too lazy to learn a language are missing out on a whole world outside of the box they are accustomed to.

I am fluent in Japanese and am beginner level in Mandarin Chinese, Norwegian, Korean, French, and Vietnamese. I've met so many wonderful people through language exchange and in life's daily events that I can't even imagine what it's like to not either speak or dabble in other languages besides one's own.

On that note, I live with my Vietnamese boyfriend and I have met so many Vietnamese people who were eager to help me learn their language and take delight in that I want to understand them. When you make an effort towards trying to understand others, they want to understand you. How could understanding someone different from you and learning from them be a bad thing?

Okay seriously, there is one downside to learning a language, and it's a pretty wide-spanning one:

Learning a language is hard.

Some languages are more difficult than others for English speakers, but no matter how closely related or similar they are, learning a language takes a lot of dedication and effort. Not hard work per se, but definitely some effort.

Each language has its own characteristics that separate it from others, even if they're similar.

For example, Vietnamese and Chinese (Cantonese). While roughly 70 to 75 percent of Vietnamese vocabulary is borrowed from Chinese and they are both monosyllabic, the languages are nowhere near interchangeable. Vietnamese has different tones and sounds from Chinese and slightly different grammatical rules. And so while the languages are similar, they both take effort for both sets of speakers to learn the other language.

The same can be said of English and Norwegian or Swedish -- the two languages said to be the easiest for English speakers. "Jeg snakke engelsk" doesn't sound or look much like "I speak English" or "I am speaking English", but it means both.

To get truly fluent in a language it is reccommended you dedicate 30 minutes a day to studying one way or another, and to some that is just too much of a bother.

Well it's fine if you don't want to learn a language because it will take some of your time and a little thought. A lot of people feel that way. But really, why miss out on all of the new options available to you in life just by broadening your horizons?

Learning a new language is time consuming and in many cases difficult, but what in life that's worth knowing or doing doesn't take some effort on your part? Think about that next time you hear someone speaking in another language.