<p>I don't know why we should learn another languages in our country. We seldom use it.</p>
<p>…especially if you can barely handle your first one. </p>
<p>(okay, sorry, couldn’t resist)</p>
<p>How dare you have to learn something new.</p>
<p>So, i don’t know, that you’ll look more interesting to future companies…</p>
<p>Meet more people, way more job opportunities, learn a new culture, get a different outlook on life, travel, try to lose the reputation that all americans are ignorant, etc.</p>
<p>You don’t HAVE to but it is advantageous with certain job opportunities. I just love languages though. I’m learning because I want to.</p>
<p>(hopefully this thread won’t turn into a debate about immigration…yikes)</p>
<p>It’s a very valid question, but it can be rephrased and made stronger.</p>
<p>“Is learning a second language an educational priority for a native english speaker?”</p>
<p>There are always reasons to learn something, but the question is given a finite amount of time what is the best thing to learn. If it’s a skill or set of knowledge you don’t derive any pleasure from learning or acquiring, but only the measurable benefits possessing the knowledge than there are a whole set of skills/knowledge that would be for more useful and applicable than learning a foreign language.</p>
<p>For most native english speakers, a second language is a vanity skill. It’s so you can take a vacation and zip around Rome on your little scooter saying “Chao” or walk into some cafe in Paris and say “Je voudrais un cafe au lait, si vous plait”. It’s so at a dinner party you write a few Chinese characters on a napkin and impress people. Foreign languages are a novelty for a native english speaker and not worth your time give the opportunity costs involved.</p>
<p>Mind you knowing a foreign language can be a considerable status symbol. It might come in handy, but then again so might knowing a bunch of Star Trek trivia.</p>
<p>Don’t learn a foreign language. Take Latin. Or take a foreign language and just don’t learn it, or go to a college where you don’t have to take one. I think most engineering schools don’t require a foreign language, go into engineering.</p>
<p>Latin isn’t a foreign language?</p>
<p>Ehhh… You don’t have to speak it. Call it whatever you want, it’s different.</p>
<p>Learning a foreign language gives students another lens through which to study and appreciate other cultures and ways of thinking. As a side effect, you will also become more aware of the structure of your own language.</p>
<p>Why should humanities majors learn math beyond basic arithmetic? Why should quantitative majors have to read classic literature? Why do most of us have to learn history even though we’ll never really have to know when the bubonic plague struck Europe or Bantu migrations around Africa? Because our education system revolves around the liberal arts; humanities, social sciences, math and science, and educating ourselves beyond a basic level. And studying foreign languages can be pretty handy - some of us do leave America now and then y’know 
B@r!um nailed it, pretty much.</p>
<p>I studied Italian for years and it wasn’t really practical (I was like 12 when I picked it). Now I work in a major hospital in NYC and wish i had taken Spanish! </p>
<p>ps - it’s ciao, not chow or chao</p>
<p>The same reason why you need to take 4 years of english (which in most high schools means 4 years of literary analysis). Knowing more than one language has traditionally been an indicator that you are a truly educated person, so you need to learn one to show that you are truly educated.</p>
<p>You’ll find that a lot of things in life are true only because they always have been.</p>
<p>According to my IB Psychology teacher, people who know more than one language score higher on intelligence tests. :P</p>
<p>“Bobby, you got a C in English? You speak English.”
(King of the Hill, may it rest in peace.)</p>
<p>Don’t see a reason for it. I took 4 years of spansh in HS and I can barely put a simple sentence together.</p>
<p>“I can’t do it, ergo, not important.” Oh hey, what’s that big mushroom cloud over there?</p>
<p>@Platt hahaha… although to be fair, English class is more about analyzing literature instead of grammar and spelling and conversation. Although any foreign language class eventually delves into that… I guess it’s sort of the logical step after learning all the basics.</p>
<p>I’ve been taking Mandarin for four years, and I plan to continue in college. It comes in handy every now and then. I can tell what those suspicious-looking Chinese people are saying… haha :D</p>
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“Bobby, you got a C in English? You speak English.”
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<p>lol Hahahaha. Oh, how I miss this show. Thank god for adult swim.</p>