Language learning as an essential life skill

In today´s world it is not always easy to decide whether languages are a benefit or part of the training needs of companies. Are they something people can´t afford (in terms of time and money) to do in their own time and the company should offer? Are they a must the company should offer if they have the aim to expand their world markets? The pandemic has made us value the things we cherish more than ever, time being the paramount value. Do we have time to learn languages? What kind of language learning do we have time for? Marketable language learning? Nourishing language learning?

Our view is that learning languages could be seen as an equivalent to meditating. Can meditation allow you to be more centred, more in the here-and-now of things, happier? Does it allow you to observe and not judge, to understand inner processes and yourself? Learning languages can help you do that too. It makes it possible for us to see the world from different perspectives, to feel the world in multiple ways, to find the common humanity we have with others. It may encourage us to investigate, to be curious and systematic, or holistic and flexible, but above all it enhances our comparative skills and our ability to thinkf of life as something that can take numerous shapes and not only one. Is our way of living the only one? Can we improve anything about the way we do things, about our activities, routines, social practices, conceptualisation dynamics? How do we inhabit the world in symbols? What do our symbols tell the world about us? Do we take care of the world around us?

Language learning is neither a benefit nor a training need, it is a science, an art, a human activity which enables us to transcend the Babel metaphor in order to build new metaphor where understanding each other is not enough, but feeling the world the way others feel it could be the aim.