Quote:
Originally Posted by astra
See? It is a wonderful hobby.
However, if you have different hobbies and no wish to learn a new language, and your mother tongue is English, then why bother? There is no benefit, except perhaphs, training your memory.
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Hm. It is not
essential in the same way that learning CPR is not essential-- not everyone needs to do it to get by in everyday life. However, the benefits of learning additional languages are fairly well documented, including a deeper understanding of one's first language, better understanding of other cultures, access to a broader range of information sources (many of which have different biases or points of view than those in one's first language), etc. Bilingual children appear to have advantages in learning to read, possibly because they are already familiar with the idea of expressing the same concept in different forms.
So I would say it's a bit more than a "hobby" for many people. Not everything we enjoy is done merely for its entertainment value.
