The Case for Multilingualism

A few weeks ago, I found myself attempting to translate the lyrics of a song to my friend, when it dawned upon me that English only really has one word for “love.” As I grappled with finding a way to explain the difference between two Urdu words for love, the subtlety of which I only understood having newly been exposed to Urdu poetry, I realised how much language is a vessel of culture — I loved the challenge of trying to translate something that transcended not only language, but culture, as if there’d been an overlap of two worlds in my head. 

Deciding to dedicate myself to learning and maintaining languages has been less about flexing the Duolingo streak or my command of grammar, and more about language being a gateway to culture and discovering both the world and myself. While multilingualism isn’t necessarily a part of everyone’s background, I think the globalisation of our world and the multiculturalism we’re exposed to should be more than enough of an incentive to make you learn a new language. 

As we know, language facilitates communication, and it is utterly central to societal functioning. But more than that, it materialises culture. Language changes with time, constantly evolving to reflect individuals and communities. To immerse yourself in a new culture is to expand your global perspective and awareness, and learning a language is one of the best ways to achieve this. Just imagine being able to say more than ‘gracias’ on the next trip to Tenerife. Personally, maintaining my Spanish, which I spoke as a child, was one of the ways I found myself being able to make friends at university. My ability to facilitate interactions with those from different backgrounds, based on a common second language, was an unexpected but fantastic pretext for friendship. 

Those who aren’t necessarily culturally inclined may find this somewhat unconvincing. In fact, I’m sure many can relate to having found mandatory second language classes at school an absolute chore — I certainly did. However, with hindsight, the cerebral exertion required when actively learning a new language developed a skill and capacity to think that has been very valuable since coming to university. Most of all, the ability to find parallels between different languages, which can be common due to shared etymology, has a way of sharpening your analytical mind. Learning a new way of conjugating verbs or new grammatical systems allows you to understand patterns and make inferences about the workings of language systems. The undeniable brain flexibility, intellectual challenge, and additional boasting power brought on by picking up a new language are just a few extra perks.

So why not branch out and discover the beauty in expression of a foreign language and different culture? Even if it starts on Duolingo learning how to say “this is a dog” in poor, accented French, it’s an investment of effort and mental capacity I believe we should all be making. 

Illustration by Calum Mayor