Learning Foreign Languages

I'm going to take a break from dishing out tips to win in office politics and talk about the importance of learning a foreign language. I was on break and sitting in a cafe downtown, I see young people (high school, maybe college students) reading some books...I look closer..ah, un petit monsieur was the title. Hm, the small mister...using what I learned and remembered from 8th grade French, I sort of translated. Wow! This girl is reading a book in French! That's pretty cool. I don't think I ever read anything remotedly close to a book in any language (except in English...only I havent really read books, per se, unless you count text books, since senior year in high school). I remembered the Spanish teacher trying to get us to read Don Quixote and I almost died...I think the teacher gave up half way through the book. Anyway, to say the least, I AM impressed.

Languages that I have learned / dappered with:

Chinese - speaking, reading, writing (some difficulty), typing (oh yea!)

Latin - not really a language...but I still remember how to conjugate amare: amo, amas, ama, amamus, amatis, amant...and when it gets imperfect...it ends in amabunt! (it's a song we used to sing)

French - don't remember much, except: J'aime les hamburger!

Spanish - hola! buenas dias! Sorta hard to believe that I went all the way up to AP Spanish 5 and yet, I'm probably no better than a Spanish toddler.

Languages that I want to learn possibly in the future:

German - always wanted to learn this...but never got the chance to learn. My best friend in elementary and middle school was German; I guess that's when I got interested. Don't know when I would ever need to use this though.

Korean - so I can understand Korean dramas. Also, Korean guys are hot. :) Tae Kwon Do is cool! But besides these superficial reasons, I can't think of any other reason why I would want to learn Korean. But yea, superficial reasons are cool!

Japanese - started to wanting to learn this since last semester under Brandon's influence. Main reason is probably because of Japanese's economy and all that. Somehow I can imagine myself living in Japan, working in a Japanese firm...but not in Korea. And I don't really enjoy anime or Japanese soaps...which is a pity because I probably would feel a lot more motivated that way.

French - give another try @ French after my failure to learn it well in 8th grade, after all, French is the fashion world AND eating world AND place for hedonistic pleasures etc.

IN CONCLUSION, I guess I'm still trying to figure out what on earth I want to do about learning languages. I know languages are important and I think learning one or two is not only fun and mind stimulating but have the potential to become useful. Although, I guess I sort of feel that even if it doesn't become useful by any means, just learning one or two to satisfy superficial reasons is pretty good too!