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Update (13 June 2011): "The Bilingual Advantage" from the New York Times. Your brain wins when you are bilingual... but you have to use both languages regularly. High school Spanish isn't enough.

I love the commercials which mock fickle cell phone reception, mostly because it doesn't take faulty technology to show how fragile human communication is. Ever since I was a freshman in high school I've been fascinated by languages. By tragedy or providence I've had the opportunity to learn (with various degrees of success) ASL, Spanish, and German. I think learning foreign languages are crucial to maintaining an understanding of differences, while it seems globalization makes it easier than ever for US'ers stay in a language bubble. So check it – here's my own list of myths and realities about learning a second language.

Myth and Reality
  1. Myth: I have to be fluent in a foreign language for it to matter. Reality: Even just a little familiarity with another language can help you appreciate the perspectives of others and to situate your own world view. Language is about connecting with people. If you show that you're willing to learn about others, you open the possibility for mutual exchange.
  2. Myth: Everyone in the world speaks English, so I don't have to learn a second language. Reality: You can go all the way around the world and speak only English. But that path would probably be driven more your monolingualism than the objective truth that "everyone speaks English". Furthermore, it would greatly limit you ability to build cross-cultural relationships that last beyond ordering food or buying a bus ticket.
  3. Myth: Anything I need to know is translated into English. Reality: Like #2, this logic is more circular than causal. Only 3% of works published in the United States are translations (learn more here), a mere fraction compared to many other countries. Second language ability helps you to appreciate the diversity and depth of work available in other languages, and might help decenter our American-centric views of knowledge.
  4. Myth: People in the U.S. speak only English, while people in other countries often speak four or five languages. Reality: This might be true in some places. But there are many non-English languages spoken in the U.S. numbering over a million: Spanish, Chinese, German, French, Vietnamese, American Sign Language, Italian, and increasingly Arabic, Korean, and Russian. In Columbus, Somali is probably the second most spoken language.
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Update: ProfHacker recently polled readers to ask, "What do you wish you would have learned?" Number one answer: a second language. Read more here.

"I have never met a person who is not interested in language." So starts Steven Pinker's book The Language Instinct.

This is true for me. Which explains why I studied American Sign Language, Spanish, French and German, and become an ASL interpreter. My interest in language started in high school, though I had little direction or dedication. I took two years of Spanish, two years of French (which I hated, to no fault of the French), and two years of German. I began teaching myself Russian using cassette tapes and a primer text in an attempt to round out the European continent. But above all others, German hit the spot for me, and I started taking German level 2 part way through German level 1. When I move to Puerto Rico, I started learning Spanish, but soon became involved in a small deaf school. Spanish ultimately took a back seat to sign language. When I moved back to Columbus, I earned a AAS in ASL and interpreting.

I have never gotten over my failure to become proficient in Spanish and German. I can only claim fluency in ASL. I have ignored other languages in recent years. But my trip to Germany last summer reminded me just how much I enjoy and benefit from language learning. At the end of the summer, I renewed my life-long commitment to learning German and Spanish. I don't expect this path to be easy or quick. But at least I'm on the path.
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