Second Languages

2023-06-13 00:00:00 / episode: 148

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Script

"Second languages.

These are often taught in junior high school and high school.

If you learn a second language, that's great.

What's the point of learning a second language? Well, you know, I think that there's a number of things going on here.

One is the the flexibility, the mental model.

Some people think their language is the proper and only way to think about and interpret and express ideas about the world.

But if you learn a different language, a second language, you learn there's different ways to express ideas.

One friend of mine who had learned five languages, he said German was the best way to express philosophical ideas and his first language was English.

When you start to learn different languages, you find that they have strong and weak points, they're good at certain things and not as good at other things.

All languages can do the basics communication but some are better at this style or that style.

I think that in university it's a great thing to learn a second or even a third language.

I'm an English speaker.

And one of the things I find about English speakers, it's the lingua franca around the world and that's fine.

But a lot of the English speakers get lazy and they never learn a second or a third language.

When I lived in Africa, I was quite impressed because a lot of the people living there just naturally speak two or maybe three languages.

They might be really good at one.

Very good at one, the second one and then kind of get by level in the third language.

That's the next thing.

Second languages teach us and give us more opportunities to communicate with other people.

And quite frankly, it's fun.

My son learned how to play the piano and now he plays the piano because he enjoys it.

That's how I feel.

Speaking second languages.

It's fun speaking in that language.

I enjoy it.

It's kind of like running when you're a child.

Children just love r running.

If you haven't learned a second language yet, please go learn one.

You'll feel much better."