I have always thought it was rather impressive when I saw teenagers speaking in English and then easily switching into another language just as fluently. A lot of kids come from families with multilingual backgrounds. Unfortunately, I did not. From the time that I was in middle school, I started to study a foreign language. Initially, learning a new language was tedious and I felt as though I was wasting my time. But, that opinion did not really stick.
After meeting one of my best friends who originally only spoke Spanish, I became very motivated to start speaking Spanish. In high school, one of my favorite teachers was the teacher that I had for Spanish. During my junior year of high school, I applied for a study abroad in China during the summer and was accepted. My time in China that following summer really gave me an appreciation for the language, especially during the Chinese classes that I took. Returning to school my senior year, I took not only Spanish, but also Chinese. Through studying the calligraphy, it furthered my appreciation of the culture.
When I applied for college, I applied for a study abroad in Italy, but one of the requirements of the program is that the students have to study at least one semester of Italian. Well, being the big girl that I am, I pulled on my language learning pants and jumped at the opportunity to learn yet another language. Not only was this experience a lot easier because of the language development skills I already had under my belt, but Italian was extremely similar to Spanish.
Now I could go on and on about how many languages I speak, brag about how achieved I am, but I will not. Instead, let us diverge a little into why this interest in life can further enhance your future. By speaking another language, you are able to reach out to multiple demographics. If you speak Spanish, you can reach most of South America, Mexico, and Spain. When you are entering the workforce, being at least bilingual makes your application far more impressive to a potential boss. Also, maybe you meet a hot foreigner who does not speak your native tongue. But, alas, you happen to speak theirs and now you two are in love and married.
Lastly, for the academic side of this argument, learning a new language will help your SAT score to improve. If you look at words and study their roots, you actually understand your own language on a better level. For example, in Spanish, we call the sea "mar". If you have ever heard of the Maritime Aquarium, it has the root word mar in it. Ergo, you know that this place has to deal with the sea. The same things works for the word marine. Overall, languages can improve your intelligence. With the addition of a language, you can learn a new culture, travel abroad, improve your future career, and even enhance your academic performance. Learn a new language. Feel special. Just do it.
