I don't know any foreign language, I don't have the faintest idea what my favourite singers are conveing in their lyrics, the amount of foreign sounding words reaching me from all directions provokes much consternation, and, for Christ's sake, why are all of my friends rolling on the floor in hysterical laughter seeing the picture on kwejk.pl (which I obviously hate since its content is 99,9% English)?
Nowadays, as English seems to be everywhere, I can barely imagine myself knowing only Polish. Though, it is not only about the fact that English achieved the international status, generally learning foreing languages may have lots of advantages many people do not even consider. Let's omit the communicative aspect of language learning and look at this broad topic from a different perspective.
From my own experience I can say, that learning another language can be a great source of entertainment. I remember myself learning Cyrillic instead of preparing for my matura exam, taking up Portuguese lessons on YouTube, and - the most recent - spending pleasurable evenings comparing Icelandic vocabulary items with their English and Polish equivalents. Although I do not memorize a lot, I just find myself in a state of immense curiosity that I can't repress, thus it is quite surprising for me that schoolchildren in England cease to study modern languages. (It is far more startling when taking into consideration the fact that the inhabitants of their country includes representatives of a great language variety.) If I had the opportunity to take up Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, HUNGARIAN (everything but the German) classes for free, I would not hesitate.
That's something nobody else has pointed out - Britain has probably all nationalities on earth among their immigrants. It would be so easy for Brits to learn foreign languages! Just go on the streets of London and there they are, foreigners waiting to share their culture and languages. What a waste!
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