Why Learn Languages?

Yesterday's class made for an interesting discussion with my peers. What initially started as confusion, quickly turned into joking and comradery to tackle the assignment, and that in and of itself shows be just how powerful "language" as a concept is. Before our session on Jamboard, I was frankly a little uncomfortable talking amongst my peers since, as I've found from previous experience with KCAI, as welcoming as everyone tends to be, there are groups of friends that are made very fast. It can be intimidating. Yet, even with this, a simple struggle with finding the word "socioeconomics" and joking about it made me comfortable enough to add to the conversations and share my opinions.

For the Jamboard assignment, I was most intrigued by the overlap of ideas of our two groups. It was expected, but the excitement of everyone when we agreed on topics already being stated made it very clear to me why language- or simply the ability to fully express yourself to another person in a way they are comfortable with- is.

There are so many benefits to learning language that we discussed in class, but personally, I feel that enhanced problem solving and better long and short term memory skills are my favorite points made. I pride myself on constantly seeking to better my critical thinking skills, and I feel that this is relevant to literally anyone. Our world today is exceptionally complex and nothing is ever black and white, so being able to come up with creative and flexible solutions to problems are very important. 

While I have made the choice to pursue language as an adult, there are also the benefits associated with starting language learning at a younger age. Critical thinking, I think, while toted as something everyone needs in school, is rarely actually enforced consistently in the American school system (depending on where you go), and I think a requirement for learning language would not only help with students' critical thinking and memory (essentially what we need to become productive adults), but would also create more cultural tolerance and empathy.