The neat thing about living in an international dorm is that I am exposed to so many cultures and the one thing that really struck me is that almost everyone here from places like Sweden, Germany, Columbia, China, Taiwan and more can speak atleast 2 languages, their mother tongue and English... and they are throwing a 3rd into the fray with Japanese as they are studying here in Japan.
As for me, I feel a little out gunned linguistically knowing only 2 languages, English and Japanese as opposed to these other people. I would have to say that the people that learn English do it out of necessity, because their country does business in the English world and the language of international academia is also in English.
Sooner or later, the distribution global powers are going to shift. China, India are now gaining momentum, who knows what the global landscape might look like in the next 40 to 50 years. Me, comming from a mainly mono-lingual culture (well most of us in Canada don't speak French, especially those of us in the West), I see it as a potential problem if we aren't able to communicate with other cultures, becuse we might actually be dependent on them one day.
Given the time, I would definately like to study more languages. In the future, I probably will. Learning more languages isn't the whole point of the story however, I think the most important part is to understand how to learn multiple languages efficently with enough command to communicate reasonably well to a native (with the hopes of gaining fluency).
Armed with the basic concepts of syntax and conjugation of words one can learn fairly quickly the basics of most languages (the real trick is the vocabulary). Fluency is achieved when you understand the nuances of how people communicate and the story is just that. But of course, it is easier "said" than done.
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