The Value of Learning a Second Language

Off one of my new favorite leading Euro-centric blogs:

A Fistful of Euros: "What is the value of learning a second language aside from the obvious practical benefits : the fact that you can talk to people who don't speak your first language, can read things which have not been translated, can politely talk to people who don't find it easy to speak your first language and can read things in the original."

If I have any readers, what are the general opinions on this one? The author goes on to discuss how his wife finds language acquisition to have wider philosophical repercussions, that is, she becomes more aware of how an idea can be expressed on multiple levels and in different ways, and this has an effect on her general outlook on life.

From my observations, it's far easier to make a connection with someone in their native language, if your skills are up to par, then it is speaking, say, English. Just watching one of my friends fluidly converse in Spanish with an Italian (Spanish being the second tongue of both), I was able to watch a real dialogue develop. I think he already wrote about this on his own blog, but I wanted to give it a mention. Meanwhile, here I am at work with so many languages zinging around every day. It's impossible to survive without a second language if you're not from an English-speaking nation, and even when you are, it becomes quite hard. I hear German, Italian, Dutch, Spanish, French, ....even Gaelic on a regular basis. And just yesterday I went to get something from the printer and there was a deal between the division here and that in North Africa (Arabic). The experience of the individual in a global corporation should necessarily be a global one.