Bag the Sudoku

I will never understand how people can waste their time doing Sudoku or the myriad of other puzzle books I saw displayed at several airports last weekend. Maybe I’ll make an exception for crosswords, as you actually might learn something and build your vocabulary. But so often these are touted as ways to keep your brain alive, stave off the effects of aging, and sharpen your reactions, blah, blah, blah. So, I make a modest proposal: let’s all learn at least one other language!

Americans are simply woeful about this. There are plenty of reasons why: Europeans have access to all sorts of media in other languages, speakers of other languages who wish to do business in our world use English as the lingua franca (a term that should give ample warning in itself of how languages can diminish in importance), and Americans are pretty much isolated from daily opportunity to use other languages. But of course, all these excuses fall apart if we ask one simple question: why aren’t most of us English speakers at least conversant in Spanish? Although Spanish is ubiquitous in nearly every major city of the U.S., the knowledge of it by non-native speakers certainly is far from routine.

So, this is a pitch for considering learning a language—really learning, reading newspapers, novels, listening to newscasts from other parts of the world, with their often very different take on world events and policies. Not only will it keep your brain alive, but it will give you increased social opportunities to interact with people outside your own small community. And maybe, just maybe, it can make a small strike for world peace. I’ve never met anyone who could thoroughly study a language, and the cultures it represents, and still maintain prejudice or loathing for the people who speak it. The complexities of understanding bring respect.