Study a foreign language if you have opportunity to do so. You may never be called to a land where that language is spoken, but the study will have given you a better understanding of your own tongue or of another tongue you may be asked to acquire.

You annex foreign land, not your own country.

The joy of knowing a foreign language is inexpressible. I find it really difficult to express such joy in my mother tongue.

Facing a language you don't know is like returning to your infancy when your mother tongue used to be a foreign language to you

Italian was my first foreign language. I speak it better than English.

To walk through unknown streets in cities where you are merely learning the language is to force yourself into a new state of hypervigilance. You are a traveler, and hopefully not just a tourist, and must appear calm, but maintain your bearings. Not to get too lost, too off course and without alternatives, without an escape plan in the event of a dangerous situation.