Why study foreign languages?

Here are fifteen things studying a new language might do for you. Foreign language study
1. broadens your experiences; expands your view of the world
2. encourages critical reflection on the relation of language and culture, language and thought; fosters an understanding of the interrelation of language and human nature
3. develops your intellect; teaches you how to learn
4. teaches and encourages respect for other peoples
5. contributes to cultural awareness and literacy, such as knowledge of original texts
6. builds practical skills (for travel or commerce or as a tool for other disciplines)
7. improves the knowledge of your own language through comparison and contrast with the foreign language
8. exposes you to modes of thought outside of your native language
9. a sense of relevant past, both cultural and linguistic
10. balances content and skill (rather than content versus skill)
11. expands opportunities for meaningful leisure activity (travel, reading, viewing foreign language films)
12. contributes to achievemnet of national goals, such as eceonomic development or national security
13. contributes to the creation of your personality
14. enables the transfer of training (such as learning a second foreign language)
15. preserves (or fosters) a country’s image as a cultured nation
The above modified from Alan C. Frantz, “Seventeen Values of Foreign Language Study” (ADFL Bulletin, vol. 28, Nr.1, Fall 1996).