Reasons to Learn a Foreign Language

                                           Finally, acquiring new languages helps one to learn                                    a new culture. An American feminist writer, Rita Mae                                        Brown (2011), once said, “Language is the road map of a                                    culture. It tells you where its people come from and                                            where they are going.” In other words, learning a                                                language means that you are getting to know more                                            about its history and custom as well. It allows you to step out of your comfort zone, embrace distinctive conventions and life styles and broaden your horizon. Another well-known American linguist, Kenneth Locke Hale, also said in an interview (1995), “When you lose a language, a large part of the culture goes, too, because much of that culture is encoded in the language.” It shows the inseparable relationship between a language and a culture, and that one cannot understand a culture without knowing its language first. Therefore, learning a language makes a better understanding of a culture and expands your perspective from different points of view.