We all wished for superpowers when we were kids—but no-one begged Santa for a French grammar textbook.
However, in today’s globalised world, languages are more important than ever. Of course it’s possible to get through your whole career without learning even a, “hola”, but your options are far more limited, and the skills section of your CV far less enticing without a second language.
In fact, in 2015, Microsoft founder and billionaire Bill Gates said that his biggest regret in life is that he speaks only English. And before you switch off and think: if Bill Gates couldn’t manage it how am I supposed to, consider this—language learning is more about persistence than anything else. And the aim of learning a second language as an adult (in a business context) is largely social rather than functional.
In other words, unless you’re bilingual, you aren’t going to be conducting meetings and writing reports …