The Importance of Learning a Foreign Language the Right Way

If you come from a European country, it is common to grow up speaking more than just your mother tongue. That is especially true for countries in which several languages dominate, such as Belgium. But European countries also tend to place a premium on students learning a second, and even third language as a way to advance in European society.  I grew up in Italy and at school I studied French and English. But our educational system had its faults, too—our language teaching was similar to that used by American students to study Spanish or French. A lot of grammar and conversation; not much in-depth in culture, customs, or peculiarities of the language itself.

Then, I discovered a different way of learning a new language when I married an American diplomat.  I was lucky to be able to study with him at the State Department’s Foreign Service Institute – Afghan Persian (Dari) prior to our assignment to Kabul, Afghanistan, in the late 1970s, and Arabic before going to Dubai, UAE, in the mid-1980s.

What a difference! Not just grammar and vocabulary (there was that!) but learning about elements of the new culture and a completely different worldview, as part and parcel of the language lessons. This way of language learning allowed me to become a more open-minded, tolerant individual living in those societies.  I could see and appreciate life from different perspectives. Imagine the immediate psychological reward I got when obliged to communicate with French, Dari, and Arabic speakers. Even if sometimes that can be frustrating because you get “rusty” or tongue-tied when you do not speak the language very often. Never mind, the language always comes back after a while, especially if properly taught, just like bicycle riding. As an added benefit, this way of learning a language also provided me with a better understanding of my own language, its grammar, vocabulary, and peculiar pronunciation patterns – useful for teaching Italian to others.

I have learned that no matter how old you are, the cognitive benefits of learning another language make you more agile in a different culture. Somehow you have the ability to switch between tasks faster than many monolingual people who adapt much more slowly. It makes you more appealing and interesting to locals, and it allows you to really experience the intricacies of the culture of the country in which you are traveling to ordering food, asking for directions, choosing a place to stay, shopping in local markets, buying theater tickets, etc.

Knowing Dari made my time in Afghanistan in 1978 so interesting and meaningful. Very few Afghans spoke English or other foreign languages. I was able to truly connect with Afghans. I experienced the pleasure of communicating with vendors at the markets, local employees at the American Embassy, Afghan guests at receptions hosted by diplomats and other foreign entities. I was also able in turn to help Afghans communicate with English-, French-, and Italian-only-speaking people. I felt I had a “superhuman power” (there was no such thing as a language translation app!)  to understand what someone was saying, recall the proper vocabulary and grammar, put it all in context, and reply back on the spot – or at least in a relatively timely manner. Some of my personal connections to this period are still in my life.

Many Americans are still mostly monolinguists, but that seems to be changing. I am glad that, because of the increasingly competitive job market, there is now an awareness that learning a foreign language can improve your employment prospects, and in highly desirable ways. In fact, this really happened to me.

Thanks to a State Department special program, there are some diplomatic overseas assignments available to qualified adult family members, IF no other Foreign Service personnel have bid on the assignment AND the potential applicant is a dependent of a diplomat deployed to an unaccompanied assignment somewhere else.  Often one of the qualifications required is the knowledge of the local language spoken in the country of the assignment. Granted, it is exceptionally rare when the planets all line up like that.

But they did for me.  In 2005 I applied and was accepted for an assignment to the US Embassy in Kabul as the English Language Program Officer. All the requirements had fallen into place: my husband was in Baghdad, I had had experience in Afghanistan in the late 70s, I was a language teacher and, dulcis in fundo, I spoke Dari.

This was an assignment, it seemed, hand-designed for me.  Because I spoke Dari, I was able to travel around the country, assessing the needs for English teaching, establishing programs, enlisting teachers, selecting students for different exchange programs in the States, and so on.  Had I not studied Dari 30 years prior, I probably would not have had that awesome experience!