What about the opportunity cost of learning all those languages. Time spent learning languages is time that is not used for other things. Age 16-20 was a crucial time in my learning computer programming at a deep level. I wonder what the marginal utility of a fourth language learned over 4 years as opposed to 4 years of say learning programming or math or finance or history or art more deeply?
> Age 16-20 was a crucial time in my learning computer programming at a deep level.
And even greater opportunity cost is the lack of in-depth knowledge of your own language.
Language isn't just grammar rules. It also has cultural/regional/historical/etc.
You can learn a few languages and be somewhat proficient at all of them or you can have expert level grasp of the language - where you can discuss philosophical, historical, economic, cultural, etc topics.
Not to mention, jokes, puns along with culture-specific references.
Personally, I wish the education system ( in the US ) focused on english, latin and ancient greek for K-12. I don't think you can fully understand english without understanding a bit of latin and even ancient greek.
Some public schools, such as Ridgeview Classical Schools in Colorado, teach English and Latin from Kindergarten through 12th grade. A Greek program starts in 3rd grade. They add modern languages (French, Spanish, German) in high school.
