why study languages at all?

efficiency of communication

language as identity

- speaking to the mind vs to the heart

- languages considered difficult + the significance of learning them

- minority, non-standard + "low-class" language

importance of person-to-person communication in digital age

why learn how to learn?

ease of learning

ease of mastery

demystification of the concept of language as a whole

ability to analyse + learn nonstandard/underdocumented language

- native speakers are not teachers

ability to recognise the idiosyncracies of your own native tongue and work around them