I’m with you, Maya! I did not learn Russian or German or French because I wanted to gain some kind of advantage in my working life. I learned them (and not all at once, of course!) because I fell in love with the languages, the associated cultures, and the people who speak them.

Culture is language and language is culture. I could go on and on about that, but I guess I’ll leave it there.

Learning languages is so incredibly enriching. Trying to reduce language learning to the practical ability to earn money is probably something that only makes sense to a person who never had to work their ass off to learn to be fluent in something besides their native tongue.

Jim