Everyone who speaks English as a first language should try to learn a second language.

Okay, I'm going to skip the factorial about use of the English language in literature and on the internet. Suffice it to say that English comprises a significant majority of the literature in the world, and of the content online. Really, do I need to source that assertion for anyone? The fact that it's such common knowledge is testament to how overwhelming the use of English is around the world. And again, I'm not lauding English as a superior language. It's only a coincidence of the timing of this debate that English is the language of predominant use. As you mentioned, Dappleshade, English proliferation has undergone a decline over the last few decades, and with the American and British economies suffering as they are, that only stands to worsen in the decades that ensue. But for English to be ousted as the dominant language, it would take more than a few decades of decline in the countries that use it. And a few decades is more time than we have to worry about learning other languages. Check this out! Today I read two articles that filled me with a long-awaited elation: one was about an interface device that is able to turn human thought into moving images on a screen (1). Yes, really! Another was about the invention of contact lenses with a built-in heads up display (2). Say goodbye to computer screens and the almighty television. Who would buy those clunky hunks of junk when they could slip in a corrective lens that displays images right in front of their eyes, no matter where they're looking? No one, that's who. And who would bother to spend hundreds of dollars, as well as hundreds of hours of study time learning another language, when the essential information could be downloaded directly into your brain? Yeah...no one. Can we do that yet? No, but now that we can extract images from a brain, how long do you think it will be before we can put images, and sounds, and whatever else <i>in</i>? A few years is my guess. And to make that time shorter, the technology needs investors, and people who are interested enough to learn about it, not people with their noses stuck in language books, muttering mispronounced French under their breath until it sinks in. And those inventions aren't just isolated flukes in the beginning stages of development. Look at the latest humanoid robots (3), at the robot competing in this year's Iron Man competition (4), and the robot nominated to carry an Olympic torch (5). Look at how algorithm's are becoming advanced enough to replace thousands of floor traders in stock markets around the world (6), farmers in their tractors (7), and diagnosticians in hospitals (8). Look at how close scientists are to being able to interpret your thoughts, word-for-word (9), and use your thoughts to control computers (10). Don't you think that will make it a lot easier to learn a language? So, in short, spend your time learning about CHI (that's my own catchy acronym for Computer Human Interface) instead of learning another language. Learn some programming code so that you can help improve the translators that will inevitably take over the human task of converting data from English into other languages, and vice versa. Once we have programs that can do it more effectively, the speed with which that feat is accomplished will dwarf the rate of human translators. Then, go ahead and learn 100 languages if you want! You could never learn that many as a mere human, but as a cybernetic human your capacity will be exponentially augmented. Learning a hundred languages will become something you do to kill an afternoon, not something which an entire devoted lifetime could still fail to accomplish. Or, keep wasting your time learning languages through reading and repetition. By the time you've become fluent in one of them, the technology will be here to allow you to become fluent in all of them, and in much less time than it took to learn the one you're on now. And then apologize to your kids for how long that technology took to get here because you and thousands of other people in your generation were busy learning Esperanto. 1. http://news.cnet.com... 2. http://www.extremetech.com... 3. http://www.kurzweilai.net... 4. http://www.huffingtonpost.com... 5. http://www.newscientist.com... 6. http://www.physorg.com... 7. http://www.readwriteweb.com... 8. http://www.nerve.com... 9. http://www.sciencedaily.com... 10. http://robots.net...