Why do we learn foreign languages?


What does that have to do with learning languages? Dose speaking foreign languages make you more intelligent? Depends. Is the ability to speak another language part of intelligence? Not necessarily, but being intelligent and knowing foreign languages do share one thing in common: They're both painful. And by painful, I don't mean the ennui of tediously long lectures for vocabulary and grammatical studies, or the expense of time for the pursuit of wisdom and knowledge, nor even the loneliness your dedication to the endeavor could bring upon you. The pain, the true torment, is the confusion. But the bigger the circle of the known, the greater the contact with the unknown, and the more firmly unlearnt believes used to stand, the more helplessly your new identity totters.

If you're lucky enough to study Farsi, you may realize that not all the beautiful poetry is written in your mother tongue. The Persian epics written in the Sassanid Empire are as beautiful as poems of the Tang Dynasty. If you happen to study Spanish, you may realize that what you thought so unique and aspect of your culture has a similar counterpart in another culture that the Puerto Rican Morcilla is almost identical with the Korean Sundae. If Russian is your language, you may realize that not all the important battles that changed the course of human history were fought on your native land, that the Russian defeat of the Golden Horde and the field of Golikova is no less significant than the the Reconquest of Granada in Spain? Can't you do this by reading history, one may ask? Yes, but history written by whom, for whom?

Because, you see, after learning the language, if you care enough, part of you becomes the member of the tribe to which the language belongs. And their cultural schizophrenia can be truly excruciating. That pain, however, can be easily offset by the better chances of employment in your job market or the simple pleasures of imprisoning your friends at the dinner table with political intrigues historical anecdotes played out in five different languages.

Why, then, would anyone who’s  not a crazy masochist want to learn foreign language? Yes. To communicate with people? Yes. To travel to different places. Yes, to advance your career in a globalized world. Yes, it is good for your brain. But more importantly, as potentially excruciating as it is, it is for those curious enough to see the world as it is and those brave enough to tear down the veils of bigotry. Instead of comfortably hiding behind the linguistic barrier and refusing to step forward and know your fellow human beings or even the so-called enemies, I am by no means accusing those not fund of foreign languages of being cowards. If anything, they have to be forever more on their guard of the bigotryes, the fatuities and the language barrier and constantly seek more reliable sources of information. Indeed, the pursuit of knowledge is almost by definition a sort of masochism. And language learning is no exception, but in such pain, and perhaps only in such pain, can we overcome misunderstandings, bridge cultures and civilizations, and find a world of peace and prosperity.

Source: collected somewhere on the internet 😊