[terrn]

This is such a sad thing to think about. Truthfully almost all languages outside of English, Mandarin, and Spanish will eventually die out. But for me learning a second language has never been about practicality, if it was I already needn't bother knowing anything but English. I've been studying Japanese for 12 years now just for the way I can think about things completely differently, and for the way it sounds. I started with French in school and after I feel more solid in my Japanese I plan to go back to it (this could never happen, Japanese is fantastically difficult). As a language lover it is very disheartening to see the inevitability of the decline in human expression through language.

[Omniusaspirer]

On the flip side, it's important to consider that different languages are arguably the largest barrier to anyone looking to experience another culture. While different languages have the novelty factor it also prevents you from fully being able to engage individuals in conversation and really get to know them.

This isn't an issue if you're only encountering two or maybe even 3 languages, but when you truly take a global perspective you're looking at French, English, Mandarin, Swahili, Japanese, Hindi, Arabic, German, Portugese, Spanish, and Russian. And that's only the big ones I know off the top of my head!

Learning new languages is great and I have no desire to see them completely forgotten, but I think when push comes to shove having one global language is absolutely preferable to the current mess we have.