Quote Originally Posted by tulip View Post
If you continue and decide to learn additional (dare I say "real") languages, it could open up whole new worlds for you, as it has for me.
I grew up speaking French and I've also lived in Germany and speak German, so I do speak three "real" languages, and yes they do "open up whole new worlds."

Engingeers Without Frontiers has been exploring the use of Esperanto in their projects. They can send Esperanto textbooks into a region a few months before their engineers go in and by the time work starts everyone is able to communicate somewhat effectively, much more effectively than trying to use English in areas where the people who do speak some English learned it from someone who didn't really know English.