We often learn a language to connect with people abroad, to have better travel experiences, or to communicate better with our co-workers as part of an international company.
But there are good reasons to learn a language even if you’re not an intrepid explorer or an international businessperson. In fact, there are many reasons to learn a language for use at home.
Take the U.S. for instance. I’m sure you’ve seen or heard a diatribe along the lines of, “This is America! Speak English!” But according to stats, fewer and fewer Americans speak English as their native language. In 2016, the foreign-born population was about 13.5%, and in 2017 it was up to 13.7%. And that even doesn’t include the American-born population who speak another language besides English.
Before English became the Lingua Franca, what makes up the present-day United States was home to hundreds of languages. And English can’t even claim a place as the first European language to be spoken on American soil! Spanish gets that credit. Not to mention the fact that scholars estimate about 15 million speakers throughout the Western Hemisphere used more than 2,000 languages before colonization.
But we’re not just talking about the Americas. Europe and other continents have their fair share of languages that are experiencing pressure from official languages and have few (if any) remaining native speakers. For example, there’s:
France: Breton, Occitan, Corsican, and Gallo
Germany: Low Rhenish, Limburgish, Alemannic, Bavarian, Sorbian, and Frisian
Italy: Lombard, Piedmontese, Sardinian, and Sicilian
Australia: Wiradjuri, Noongar, Wajarri, Upper Arrernte, and Warlpiri
Japan: Ryukyuan, Ainu, Orok, and Nivkh
In the Americas, we can’t forget languages like Blackfoot, Cherokee, Iroquoian, Hopi, Nahuatl, Quechua, Guaraní, Navajo, Inupiaq, Cree, and Hawaiian.
In addition to indigenous languages, there are other languages spoken alongside English — minority languages. In the U.S., these are languages like French, Arabic, Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean, Tagalog, and Spanish — all of which have over one million speakers. In fact, you can probably find a community of speakers for almost any language somewhere in the U.S., especially if you live in or near a major city.
By learning one of the languages spoken in your community, you can build relationships, experiences, and opportunities that wouldn’t be available to you otherwise.
Rather than invite you to learn a foreign language, we invite you to learn a local language. Whether it’s a majority, minority, or indigenous language, learning a new language offers you the chance to connect with people, not just around the world, but at home, too.
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"Amazing language learning tool. Excellent app for increasing vocabulary in your foreign language of choice. Useful for beginner, intermediate, and advanced learners. The repetition of the words makes them much easier to remember, and without the hassle of making your own flash cards. I have used Drops for two years now and have seen great results."
"Great little learning app! I've learned at least 5-10 new words in Spanish in my first 5 minutes. Easy to pick up and thorough."
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"I like that you can switch between different subjects and topics constantly and it’s really easy to learn a lot of vocabulary very quickly! This works perfect for me because I can learn a lot of words but then practice sentence structure with my grandmother whose from Croatia"
"Fantastic app great opportunity to learn languages on your spare time. Drops makes it easy to learn and retain words to formulate sentences."
"What an amazing app! I’ve tried several apps for language learning and I cannot recommend Drops enough. I don’t know how a short Drops session can teach me as much as 1 hour+ of focused use of other apps, it’s like magic."
"Love my fun language learning and practice with daily Drops sessions, and monthly Challenges to participate in, and quiz mode to test contextual learning - brilliant! So much thought, consideration and inclusivity has gone into the design and function of this app, I can't praise it highly enough."
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