5 Ways You Miss Out When You Only Speak One Language

It’s not like we Americans haven’t tried

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learning languages — most of us have struggled through at least a couple years of high school Spanish (no bueno) — it’s just that most Europeans start learning their second languages much earlier than we do (about 8 years earlier on average). So by the time they get into high school, constructing sentences like, "Sir, would you be so kind as to tell me where, precisely, the bathroom with the 19th century mosaic is located?", we’re humiliating ourselves with phrases like, "Me go nice bathroom, yes?"

Now, you could just count your losses and start celebrating all that extra selfie time you’ll enjoy not learning a second language, but before you do, consider this: learning a language is actually good for you. Sure you don’t have to learn another language, but just think about all the great things you’d miss out on if you only did the things you had to do: like painting pictures of clowns, badminton tournaments, binging on Netflix, snorkeling, sitting on the hood of a car while you dare your friends to make it past 60 mph (you totally should shouldn’t do that).

https://www.babbel.com/en/magazine/5-ways-you-miss-out-when-you-only-speak-one-language