First off, I should preface my remarks me stating that I think that human languages, computer languages, and much of higher level math all what I would consider to be ‘languages’. There are a number of valid reasons for spending the time to learn another language, and some of them are quite compelling.
There is the paranoid perspective; that there are plenty of comparisons to be made with students in other countries. This implies that the global business world will be governed by those who are multilingual (arguably).
Then there is the ‘troubleshooting perspective’, I use this term in that when I used to troubleshoot electronic circuits, the more different ways to look at the problem and the greater the variety of tools I had to bring to bear to any problem were always of real value. In electronics, this meant having a deep understanding of what the circuit was supposed to do, as well as being able to look at it for DC, RF, Digital, and Analog problems. In essence the more ‘languages’ that you spoke, the faster and probably more accurately you would be able to solve problems…this is a good justification for studying almost anything, but particularly languages (which, if only to me, includes Mathematics and computer languages), where they give you different ways to look at many of the things you have already looked at…
The results of knowing a new language is that it opens up new vistas, it can give you new tools to deal with reality, it and give you new tools and methods to some problems, and it could give you access to cultures and perspectives from many more people than you currently do.
Almost all of the activities in which we deal with (at least from the standpoint of culture) involve speaking, listening, reading, and writing. These are the primary tools of culture and they give us access to a broad range of opportunities, information, even fellowship, and most of the things we hold dear. Developing the ability to use more languages increases one’s abilities and access to all of these aspects of life.
These are all rather deep reasons for spending the time, pain, and effort to master a new language. The fact is that the effort involved in mastery of any of these languages can be quite large. Because we deal with expression and communications at such a primary level one can easily see that mastering a language may be one of the more complex and difficult scholastic tasks you could be saddled with. It is certainly more encompassing than merely memorizing lists of things. So, with this in mind, I would present the notion that all of this effort pays off (in nearly direct correspondence with the amount of labor you would bring to this task).
There are secondary aspects to learning languages; the foremost is that it gives you, the student, a deeper understanding of your own language and possibly more effective and precise use of this tool are possible almost solely from studying other languages… In reality, very few students work on their English speaking and writing skills except under duress, students of other languages are often drawn to this work of clearing away some of the arbitrary accretions of one’s native language (i.e. it is good to do some spring cleaning every so often…).
I think that learning other languages can arguably be presented as the fundamental definition of being educated. To be able to go beyond one’s nearby surroundings (literally and figuratively) are implicit in the idea of being educated, so that using completely different ways of communicating and expressing yourself are as primary path towards this broader sense of self.
