Being able to communicate with people is so important. In a globalized world, even though English is a popular language, it is by no means an official language, nor is it the only one that is spoken across the globe. In the United States, there is the assumption that you only need to speak English, but learning a second language is an invaluable skill. Learning a second language is daunting, but once you learn one new one, the pros outweigh the work that goes in.

Learning a second language helps you have a way to communicate with a whole new group of people who speak that natively or are also learning the language. In addition to being able to speak a different language, you'll also learn about a different culture, which in turn expands your worldview and enables you to be more sympathetic.

There are so many benefits for your brain health associated with learning a second language. It activates the opposite hemisphere of your brain, so you use more brain power overall. It also helps improve memory, as there are double the words, grammar structures, and syntaxes. Using your brain frequently and in ways that are outside the norm of society help improve brain functions.

Learning a new language is like building a puzzle in your mind. You learn new facts and piece them together with what you already know to create a new way of conveying information working up to fluency. Learning a second language also changes the way that you think about your first language. There are so many things that native speakers take for granted, and learning these things in a different language helps explain why the weird rules that we just accept exist.

Starting a language at a young age makes achieving fluency much easier. The way that the brain processes learning is different after 13. This difference is substantial in the amount of time and work that it takes to learn a new language.

Bilingualism is a greatly marketable skill. Employers love knowing that their employees can speak a different language if it's necessary for their business. However, just taking a language for a couple years in high school isn't good enough to actually be able to communicate. Learning a language is a skill, and like any skill, you have to be motivated to work on it to actually achieve fluency.

Even if you had a terrible experience in your high school language class, there are so many reasons to learn a second language, and there are so many more out there than the one that you had a bad experience with. It doesn't hurt to try something new, and you could meet some great people and have a new skill all through one change in your life.