Learning another language can open a lot of doors for an individual in many ways. Such as, providing you with more job opportunities, the ability to communicate with a wider variety of people, easier travel, etc. I think it is important to be aware and to have knowledge of other cultures. It helps widen your perspective and understanding of people and why others are the way they are.

Language is universal. People use language to communicate with one another. I know a lot of people do not think they should have to learn another language if they already speak English and that is understandable but at the same time I do not think that English should be the only language spoken.

I think if English became a universal language and that was all anyone spoke, that would be awful. Why would you want everyone to be the same and sound the same? It is amazing how many different languages there are and how much heritage and culture are behind each language. I would hate to live in a world where everyone wanted to be the same or for communication to be “easy.”

It is one of the craziest things to meet someone who does not speak any English but somehow manage to still communicate with them your questions or ideas using hand gestures or pointing.

Language is just very interesting to me. Learning another country or person’s language shows a form of respect. It shows that you care enough about that culture to dive into the biggest thing that represents them, their language. It is awesome when my university gets foreign exchange students or the sports teams get kids from foreign countries to come play over here and they do not know a single bit of English. That is amazing to me because they are going to an unfamiliar country with no means of communicating with anyone. I think that would be incredibly scary but I am always highly impressed by how quickly they learn and how devoted they are to understand and speaking the language.

I had some teammates my first two years of college who came to the United States to play basketball at my college from Brazil. They did not know any English and had to take English classes while they were there. It was always crazy to see the difference from when they first got there to the end of the first semester. They probably knew a few words at the beginning but by the end we would be having full on conversations. It was pretty amazing because they were so dedicated and really cared to learn English. It was always fun hearing about Brazil and how it was different from here. If they had never decided to take on going to university in America and choosing to learn English, I would have never been able to have some of those great conversations I had with them.

Language is important and it is filled with so much more than just words. People should get passed the idea of English being the only language anyone should speak and instead try to learn another one and understand another person’s culture and what makes them who they are. I hope the world never goes to one language but instead embraces the diversity of language that is found all around the world.