1. You become more open-minded.
Learning a different language and immersing yourself in a different culture will you teach you many new things. I can speak two languages fluently and am learning a third. Through the years I have found myself growing much more open-minded. I am understanding of other cultures and the differences between human beings. Instead of thinking of our differences as things that are wrong, I started to think of them as beautiful and unknown things. Just because someone doesn't believe in the things you do, or doesn't do things the way that you do, it doesn't mean they are wrong for being different. Learning about another culture will help you come to peace of other people and why they do things the way they do.
2. You become more patient.
They say the older you get, the harder it becomes to learn another language. I was raised bilingual and started learning a third language in elementary school. Therefore, learning different languages comes naturally to me. I know this is not the case for other people, and because of that, I have grown to be so loving of those who try. No matter where you are or what you do, speaking a language other than your native one is hard. Once you start to learn a different language, you will realize the difficulty of it and you will become more patient with those who try to speak your native language but struggle with their verbs and heavy accents. You'll stop laughing at their mistakes and grow to appreciate the effort and confidence it takes to speak to you.
3. You become more employable.
Learning another language will definitely help you in the big-kid world. I've had several professors and employers tell me how lucky I am to be fluent in two languages. My advisor even highly encouraged a minor in a third language. It makes you more marketable and likable. People like people who put an effort into things and are knowledgeable and smart. An employer would rather hire someone who can communicate with several groups of people, even if you have a heavy accent, rather than someone who can only communicate with English speakers because, let's be honest, almost anyone can do that.
4. Traveling becomes easier.
You're less likely to fall for tourist pranks and communicating will become much easier, obviously. If you know what you're saying, learn the culture, learn the geography, and learn everything about a language, you will have a lot less anxiety about traveling to a country you've never been to before. You won't get lost as easily and people won't take advantage of your lack of knowledge because you actually know your stuff! Go you! Also, people will be nicer to you if they see you took the time and effort to learn about their culture.
5. It's fun.
No matter how hard it can get sometimes, learning another language is fun! You make funny mistakes that make absolutely no sense to other people and you learn to laugh at yourself. To this day, I still can't get a single American saying right. I always mess them up. As soon as words leave my mouth, I stop and laugh because I already know my sentences don't make sense. Learning new languages is fun and exciting, and everyone should do it because I swear there's nothing more satisfying than being able to communicate with someone who doesn't know your native tongue.
6. It's sexy.
LOL. I'm not joking, though. Knowing a different language is pretty hot. Once people find out you're fluent in another language (bonus points if it's a Romance language like Spanish or French) they automatically fall in love with you. Just kidding. But people do think it's cool. I always have people come up to me and ask me to say random sentences to them in Spanish and they look at me like I'm some sort of goddess. I enjoy every second of it.
7. People will think you're really smart.
Whenever I don't know the answer to something I say, "I'm sorry. I know the word in Spanish!" People always fall for it and think I actually know the answer to something when really I have no idea and don't want to look stupid. Once you become somewhat fluent in a language people will think you are some sort of superhuman who is so smart and knows so many things. It's fun.
