We all dream of eating pizza near the Pantheon, skiing down the Swiss Alps, munching on a macaroon in the gardens of Versailles. I don’t know many people who wouldn’t love to drop everything for a trip to Europe if time and money permitted. But when it comes to foreign language, most people quickly say no way, non merci, no me gusta. But I’m going to challenge you to rethink foreign language if the first words that pop into your mind are useless and boring.
There’s incredible power in “I don’t know.”
I love being right, and I love being in charge. I like being the expert—we all do, right? But at the same time, nobody likes a know-it-all. In some subjects, you BS your way through, but when it comes to language, spewing out random words can make for an interesting situation. There is no language learner who gets every question right. Even if you study every single thing you’ve learned thus far and write a fab paper, there’s still a tense you haven’t learned or a word that doesn’t translate perfectly. When you have to say I don’t know, je ne sais pas, no se, it may not feel the best, but it’s a good reminder you don’t need to know everything to enjoy something.
Foreign language teaches you humility.
Now I’m sure you’re about ready to sign up for a beginner Italian class because you’ll get to be humble, right?!! Yeah, right. Humility isn’t fun because it’s uncomfortable and embarrassing. Even if you say the right words, a native speaker may be holding in a giggle at your cute American accent. And while you may be able to cram in three hours of statistics or skim over a novel you conveniently didn’t start till the night before the timed write, there’s no crash course for foreign language. And while I absolutely hate when people tell me this, it’s beyond true: it takes time. There are some kids who are geniuses in calculus or chemistry, and while you can be very intelligent in a foreign language, you can’t just learn a few formulas and just figure out the rest.
You open your world to another culture.
I’m very grateful to have been born in America, but at the same time, it’s one big fat bubble. And it needs to be popped. When you learn another language, you understand so much more about different culture and realize your home is incredibly different than everywhere else in the world. The moment you realize your way isn’t the only way and other culture’s sometimes even have better ideas, you’ve arrived.
You learn to become comfortable in the uncomfortable.
Wow, I’m really selling foreign language because you can be wrong and uncomfortable all the time. Lol jk. But in all sincerity, foreign language is all about the unknown. The moment you pick up an article in a foreign language your head will start swimming around and doing flip turns because you know maybe 27.6% of the words on the page. And a lot of people give up there. But I don’t think this is much different than life in general. Life is full of question marks and uncertainty, but that doesn’t mean you can live under a rock (sorry, Patrick Star). It’s easy to get caught up in “I don’t know this word” and “my head hurts,” but focusing on what you do know makes it a puzzle.
You expand your communication skills.
This is a duh but definitely not something to overlook. When I went to France two years ago, my mere two years of French helped me order and get directions. And when I went to Disney World, I was able to have multiple conversations with native French speakers working there. Sharing a common language is such a valuable connection whether you’re traveling abroad or even still in America.
You can travel.
Now that you’ve learned the virtues of humility and being uncomfortable, we can get to the good stuff: travel. Knowing the native language makes any trip so much less daunting. Everyone told me Parisians would be so mean, but I found just the opposite. Make the effort to say bonjour and je voudrais, and they are more than happy to help you out. Whether you’re studying, volunteering, living or traveling abroad, being fluent or even just dabbling in a foreign language is a good excuse to leave the country.
You may be eyeing the stack of Spanish grammar exercises waiting for you. Or wondering why you need to learn how to get to the park in German. I’ll be honest: learning French vocab words on recycling and the environment was not my favorite (desolé, Mme Thompson), but you gain so much more than just constructing a sentence and vocab lists from taking up a foreign language.
Bises,
Kristin
{Why do you like learning a foreign language?}
