We live in a world that gets smaller and smaller everyday. With advances in transportation and communication, it is nearly impossible to never hear or see other languages being used.
Given this increased globalization, there are several reasons that you might want to learn another language, whether for use in domestic or international settings (and not just to fulfill the Arts and Letters language requirement!):
Speaking
Perhaps it seems obvious, but one great reason to learn another language is to be able to have a conversation in it! Perhaps you have family members or friends who speak other languages, and you want to be able to talk them in that language. It’s also great for being able to talk to strangers who speak another language, such as if someone asks you for directions or even in professional settings.
Being able to communicate in more than one language is also ideal for traveling abroad; many of my high school and college friends who have traveled abroad can confirm that knowing another language is super helpful, and that traveling is one of the best ways to learn that language.
Reading
Knowing another language is also fantastic for increasing the amount of literary works you can read. Maybe you want to read Dante’s Inferno in the original Italian or Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables in the original French. Translations are fine, but often you miss a lot of subtext and lose some information through translation. Great literary works, fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and even newspapers or blogs are opened up to you if you can read in more than one language.
Reading also occurs in daily life; for example, you can change the language setting on you phone or social media accounts to get daily practice and use of another language. You can even use sources in other languages for papers and assignments (I have done this while writing a paper about Verdi’s operas).
Writing
Beyond using sources in other languages, you can also write whole papers. Maybe you don’t necessarily have to do this outside of a foreign language course, but in the future if you’re writing a thesis or dissertation and want as many people to read it as possible, you could write it in more than one language to make sure that nothing is lost in translation. Writing in other language is also great for sending copies of your resmue to international applications.
Of course, writing also occurs in more practical forms. Writing letters or even Facebook messaging, texting and emailing in other languages are great ways to communcate with others.
Listening
Finally, learning another language allows you to enjoy foreign films, TV shows and channels, music, radio and more without constantly consulting subtitles! It is truly amazing what you can learn from these sources if you are able to understand them!
The great thing about using and acquiring skills in another language is that they, in turn, help you to become more familiar with that language. Also, the more you learn another language, the more you can learn about the world that we live in! If you want to learn what ideas others are communicating in speech, writing, online, in film, in music, or other venues, I strongly recommend learning or familiarizing yourself with another language. You won’t regret it!