Three Reasons to Learn as Many Languages as You Can

How do you say, "Kezzie101 is amazing" in Zulu? —SparkNotes editors

With the dominance of English in international relations, many languages seem to be falling into desuetude. (Much like the word "desuetude" in the English language.) And while it's natural for languages to gain and lose words over time, it would be a pity if multilingualism lost its allure. I live in a country with eleven official languages, and I'm thankful for the opportunity to strive for polyglot status. So if you're skeptical about broadening your linguistic horizons, you've come to the right place! Presenting: three reasons to buck up and learn a new language:

1) The chance to discover a different perspective/mode of expression

This is a pretty standard reason, but it's overused because it's true. For instance, greetings are brusque in English; a cursory “Fine” is a sufficient and expected response to “How are you?” However, Spanish and Zulu both encourage more meaningful conversations about the person's wellbeing. As a side note, the Zulu greeting is “Sawubona,” with literally means “(I) see you.” Now where else have you heard that recently?

Afrikaans uses sounds that I think are remarkably expressive. A lot of Afrikaans words have crept into South African English. My favorite word is the dramatic “pantoffels,” which means "slippers." In case anyone is considering re-christening their fuzzy footwear, the pronunciation is approximately “pun-toffels.”

Other languages just make you think of objects differently—like Zulu, which always reminds me of Entish. Treebeard would be proud: many Zulu words are descriptive and more than three syllables long. Mobile phone is “umakhalekhukhwini,” literally “the one that cries in your pocket.” Also, there are many onomatopoeic words, like “shosholoza” (the sound a train makes when it starts to gather speed) that simply don't have an adequate corresponding word in English. Once you've mastered the clicks (on “C,” “Q,” and “X”), and learned to take a deep breath before starting a new word, Zulu is surprisingly easy to speak. There are no silent letters so, give or take a few “H”s, the spelling and pronunciation is manageable.

2) Read new books

One of the greatest things about learning another language is that it opens up new literature. Many non-English books are translated into English, but their meaning is often lost in translation. Take the Sphinx riddle in “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.” Spider in Afrikaans is “spinnerkop,” so the riddle was altered significantly to fit the words “spin” (“purr” in Afrikaans), “er” and “kop” (“head”). And Voldemort's name had to be designed from “Ek is Heer Woldemort” (“W” has a “V” sound in Afrikaans, and “V” sounds like “F.” And somehow “Foldemort” sounds more cuddly than terrifying).

3) Understand celebs in their native tongues

If you're a Spanish-speaker, you can understand Rafael Nadal when he gives post-match interviews. Personally, I like knowing how to sing “Manos al Aire” by Nelly Furtado with all the actions whenever someone starts singing “Umshini Wami” (a Zulu political song that gets sung waaaay too often).

As the Spanish say: “Un idioma nunca es suficiente.”

Why do you want to learn another language?

Related Post: What Your Second Language Says About You

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