What’s the point of learning a foreign language?

When President Obama was campaigning in 2008, he admitted, “I don’t speak a foreign language. It’s embarrassing!” But he’s not alone. Unless they’re in a school committed to language study or personally motivated to become a polyglot, most Americans don’t spend much time learning foreign languages.

We know it’s good for us — why else would most educational institutions make it a prerequisite to graduation? But Americans are still far behind the rest of the world when it comes to studying and mastering foreign languages. (And we won’t even mention how many Americans can’t even speak proper English.)

Out of more than 129,000 Hunch users who answered the above question, 60% would be comfortable making a phone reservation for a restaurant in only one language. The Teach Hunch About You (THAY) question this data comes from essentially determines language fluency. Making a reservation involves the impromptu asking and answering of a series of questions. Even if you’ve studied Spanish — or French or Chinese — in a classroom, such a banal exchange might be difficult.

In many foreign language programs, student don’t progress too far beyond their names, where they live, and generically describing their personalities — “I am Amanda. I live in New York. I like to eat food and have friends.” No native adult speaker is that boring.

You won’t be surprised to learn that most monolingual Hunch users are English speakers from North America and Oceania, while the most formidable polyglots hail from Europe, Africa, and Asia.

The idea of a universal translator originated in science fiction, but now it’s very real. If we can more easily translate content from a foreign language to our own in the future, do we really need to speak more than our mother tongue? That’s a question for educators and linguists. Here at Hunch we speak in correlations. So let’s look at the differences between people who are monolingual and those who speak many languages…and can say Hunch in every one of them.

For starters, you’ll see a nice curve in the data. Hunch users who speak one language are more likely to be middle of the road politically (and right side of the road when driving). Hunch users who speak two or three languages are more liberal. And polyglots who speak four or more languages are the most liberal of the bunch.

The same goes for education, which makes sense. All those verb tenses and pronouns don’t learn themselves.

How else are monolinguals and polyglots different? Well, pretty much every way you can imagine.

Not only can people who speak more than one language make more restaurant reservations around the world. They’re more likely to travel around the world in the first place. Hunch data shows that polyglots are politically liberal and adventurous. But how much of that might also be a product of the larger culture they come from? Are the famously stylish and romantic people of France this way, because of their language? Or because of their larger culture, which encompasses language?

Language and culture can’t be separated. But perhaps this also explains why people who study languages become more interested in other cultures and all that they have to offer. They become better-informed about the world around them. And we won’t deign to say this explains why they vote the way they do, but that’s a whole other correlation.

It also appears that people who speak more than one language tend to be more musical and better with numbers. Again, are people with the opportunity and propensity to learn more than one language already more intelligent? Maybe sometimes, but they can’t all be. (In Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell explores why Asian people are good at math in a chapter called “Rice Paddies and Math Tests.” He concluded that it mostly has to do with learning within a culture of hard work, but that the complicated mathematical nature of Asian languages might also play a part.)

Confounding variables aside, all this data seems to reinforce the benefits of learning other languages. Research also reports that speaking more than one language also keeps the brain more flexible and able to multitask, which could delay Alzheimer’s. We’re not saying it’s easy (especially once you’re older) or necessary (hello, Google Translate). But at the very least, it makes life more interesting. Or interesante.

Most Hunch users really only have the facility of one language, but they’re not opposed to foreign films. We’ll chalk this up to an interest in what other cultures have to offer, even if they can’t experience it without a translator. A majority of 82% would prefer to watch a foreign film that’s subtitled in their native language, rather than watch a film dubbed in English. We’re guessing that the 18% who would opt for a dubbed film don’t want to read movies. Or maybe they just appreciate the hilarity of a badly dubbed film.

But what else do we know about Hunch users on Team Subtitle and Team Dub? Despite both groups only speaking their native language, Hunch users who prefer subtitles have characteristics prevalent among multilinguals. They’ve traveled to more countries. They’re more liberal. And yes, they’re more educated.

Hunch users who watch subtitled foreign language films also follow the multilingual trend of being more technologically engaged. They’re not necessarily early adopters — in fact members of Team Subtitle and Team Dub are almost equal in that regard at 28% and 27%, respectively. But Hunch users who choose subtitles are more likely to have edited or authored an article on Wikipedia, to maintain a blog or website, and to use an iPhone.

But don’t think Team Dub isn’t with it. Hunch users who prefer foreign films dubbed in English are slightly more likely to have contributed a topic to Hunch. (Yeah, we were surprised, too.) They’re also more likely to use Hunch daily or several times per week.

Knowing this, Hunch would like to recommend that you all spend more time exposing yourself to different cultures, which inevitably means experiencing foreign languages. We’ve gone over the benefits in this report and even in October’s look at voter bias. People who have been exposed to more ideas and cultures live fuller, more thoughtful lives. Not to mention how many foreign movie and country recommendations Hunch has for even the most lost in translation.