This summer, I had the tremendous fortune to be able to spend part of my summer living in Leuven, Belgium. I took several classes while I was in Belgium, but book learning only got me so far. The other, arguably more valuable part of my education in Europe came from the streets of Leuven, less in the traditional American sense of “street smarts” than in a much more subtle, European way.

Some of the biggest lessons that the streets of Leuven provided me were lessons on language or, more accurately, my lack thereof. Leuven is situated in the Dutch-speaking region of Belgium. Unfortunately, I speak no Dutch. Luckily for me, however, almost everyone in Leuven spoke enough English for me to be able to get by.

While at first I looked at this as a lucky coincidence for my American companions and myself, I soon realized that I was gravely mistaken. While the prevalence of English was undoubtedly very convenient, it struck a nerve. Why should I be able to travel to the Belgians’ own country and speak a language that is not their native language, yet still have the privilege of being understood in my own tongue?

The answer is rather pragmatic. Dutch is not a major world language. One could not travel very far with the Dutch language alone. Imagine yourself as a monolingual speaker of Dutch (or, for that matter, any language other than English) trying to make your way around the United States. Not so easy, is it? While the Spanish-speaker might be lucky to encounter someone in the United States with a smattering of high school Spanish, only in a few places (for example, those with large Hispanic populations) will they be able to find Americans who are truly bilingual.

So, why does this matter? According to the language research and preservation group SIL International, which regularly publishes studies of world languages, English is spoken worldwide by an estimated 500 million to 1.8 billion people, with exact estimates complicated by the presence of different dialects and various levels of fluency.

After reading these statistics, it is tempting to convince the English-speaking mind that learning another language is unnecessary, as everyone seems to want to learn English.

Any history student who is worth their salt, however, will tell you that a scant few centuries ago the language of the “civilized” and “cultured” was French, not English. Things change.

A recent European Union study found that 56 percent of EU citizens reported the ability to fluently converse in a language other than their native tongue; 28 percent reported being able to do the same with two languages. Why should Americans, who pride themselves on their leading role in the world, not proudly be able to report at least some ability to communicate with that same world they so proudly lead?

In short, my advice is to learn another language. You’ll get much more out of it than a set of grammar rules.

Garrett Fontenot can be reached at [email protected]