Most colleges require that their students finish a cycle of foreign language courses before they graduate. When I heard about that rule, I was pretty upset. I had spent so much time on languages when I was younger anyway—just like most of you—and didn’t want to have anything to with a foreign language course in college.

Ironically, I personally know five languages: English, Arabic, Urdu, Punjabi, and Spanish. But because I am planning a road through sciences, foreign language classes seemed like an unnecessary nuisance I didn’t want to deal with.

However, my perspective changed after I did some research on why learning different languages is so crucial.

When Joseph Cardillo talks about Multilingual creativity he says, “Disembodied language can allow you to understand the world in dazzling new ways...knowing a second language is similar in effect. You develop new experiences, new thought, new vision, and new solutions.”

An article in Fast Company posits that people who are raised bilingual, multicultural tend to have a more fluid kind of creativity and the reason is that they are familiar with multiple mind wares--multiple cultural reality tunnels. Knowing all these languages allows us to feel in different cultures and to taste in different languages, to shape personalities that are pieces of different parts of the world.

We are fundamentally, grasping more of the world into our minds and therefore making ourselves more open to reality and the different people around us.

The reason: to understand these languages we often have to know of the cultures behind them, and the more you know, the more you grow in this knowledge and therefore you get to cross through more doors and mindsets. We are, in effect, allowed to move between the worlds that are created in these cultures, which expands our minds and our vision. We are able to see more possibilities with all the cultures and thoughts combined and therefore, we are given a gateway that essentially allows us to see just how ambiguous and fluid everything is all at the same time.

All the languages and cultures are different and related at once, and although that fact is pretty confusing, it’s very beautiful as well. America is considered to be a melting pot, or a mosaic, however, the planet Earth is a thousand times bigger of a melting pot and mosaic and that is why it is so beautiful. There are people of all kinds who are similar yet different. Our personalities are similar in effect. By making a variety of friends, we ourselves become a more unique person.

I now believe that learning more languages actually allows you to be more open to connecting the dots of the world in a new way and therefore makes you more open to reality because this world this world is made of languages. Understanding more languages, knowing the culture behind each of them allows us to connect more deeply with the world around us as well as one another.

I personally have come to realize that the more people know of the world, history, and culture around them, the more we can do to better our lives. Teamwork is always a strong basis for a successful nation-wide effort. Without it, things rarely progress. Similarly, if we learn more of the people in the world, put an effort to understand them, I’m sure that unity will help us make the world progress further than where it is at the moment.

So learn more languages, teach yourself to accept other cultures, and then to give back, work with your knowledge to build a better world. If you know the words the world is made of, you can make of it, whatever you wish. Enjoy your foreign language classes. If it feels like a pain, change your mindset and intention of a reason for taking the class. Rather than taking it as something forced upon you, take it as an opportunity to learn more about the people who speak the language.

Once again, I would love to hear your reviews. Maybe you have a different take on the idea. I’m sure everyone would like to see the different thoughts on the topic. After all, opening your mind to the world and accepting the different people out there is what this article was for.