Learn a foreign language

I looove Romance languages, I speak French and Spanish fluently and I'm studying Italian at the moment. And I listen to a lot of music in Portuguese like Bebel Gilberto.

One of the best things about studying languages is you learn about cultures and history -- for example, when I studied Spanish in high school one year, our textbook was an art history textbook used at Spanish universities. So instead of doing redundant grammar exercises all year, we learned about famous Spanish artists and the (historical) context of their artwork.

And languages pay off soooo much when you travel abroad and put them to use! I spent a summer teaching children in rural Honduras and I appreciated learning Spanish so much more.

Done!

I took 4 years of Latin in high school, have taken Spanish and Italian in college, taught myself bits of Finnish, German and Japanese, and am currently learning Russian. My goal though, is to become fluent in 2 or 3 other languages. I'm just barely conversational in those languages (although i'm getting much better at Russian). If you want to learn a new language, the best time to start is now, because the older you get the less trained your neural pathways become. It's never as hard as you think - the best way to really dig into another language is to listen to music, watch shows, or see movies that are in that language. You'll pick up more than you think, and you'll learn about that culture and the way it expresses itself.

I'll admit that I no longer know the Spanish I used to, but I think that we should have to learn at least one foreign language in school. Most of us here starting learning another language in middle school, but Europe starts much younger. I think we need to recognize that in order to communicate with the rest of the world, we too should make the effort to learn another language and not just assume that everyone's going to learn English. That assumption is arrogant and you'll miss out on the culture behind the language.

Every one should learn at least one foreign language...probably Spanish. It's a great way to learn about other cultures, not to mention it's FUN! I want to learn, like 5 different languages eventually. I'm in my second year of college-level Latin, and it has been so great. I want to learn: Italian, French, German, Spanish, and maybe Greek and then maybe either a Middle-Eastern, or Western language. Chinese would probably be a good one to know in the end. But, really, learning different languages is sooo amazing and a lot of fun, AND it's good for you.