Editor’s Note: All opinion section content reflects the views of the individual author only and does not represent a stance taken by The Collegian or its editorial board.

Many of us fall victim to the Duolingo streak. You try to stay consistent and reach 20, or if you’re really consistent, 100 days, and then you forget about it. Maybe you watched the Super Bowl and wanted to understand Bad Bunny’s lyrics, but after you tried to memorize and translate them, you moved on with your day. Maybe you even took a language course in middle school, but you never really cared to continue learning, perhaps finding it too difficult to maintain. 

Growing up with immigrant parents, I took the languages I spoke for granted. I personally spent a good portion of my upbringing as a disgruntled translator and a reluctant resource, feeling like an outsider in a world I didn’t really know. Immersed in Polish at home while attending a public elementary school in the suburbs of Chicago, I thought it was a normal nuisance, as a majority of the district’s population was bilingual, with a many speaking Polish, Spanish, Bulgarian or Serbian. 

With age, I learned to value the incredible opportunity of being born into a bilingual household. But I now know that this isn’t everyone’s truth, and even if it is, it’s not completely embraced — even though it should be. 

Language is a barrier we can choose to take down by educating and immersing ourselves in the power of communication. It’s with this understanding that I carry the strong belief other parents should raise their kids in a two-language household. 

It’s not just the ability to communicate with more people that should intrigue parents, but also the potential for their children to understand cultures and the differences between them more deeply. It raises children to be more patient, understanding and empathetic.

Suddenly, the difficulty of a neighbor’s broken English is a way to connect, not a difference. You may pick up on a familiar accent, and instead of simplifying your language, you can speak in each other’s native tongue. Though simple, conversation is the gift that language provides us all.

Of course, not all parents are immigrants, bilingual or have the time and patience to educate themselves on a whole new language for the sake of their children. This is where bilingual school systems come into play.

There’s an extensive debate on just how effective these schools are in their ability to switch between languages while maintaining the same level of education as an average American school. But I find that’s where necessary pressure should be put upon the U.S. education system. As the supposed melting pot of the world, why can’t the U.S. create more bilingual programs that emphasize maintaining rigorous and competitive education within average public school systems? Why not implement an additional language at an age when the brain is essentially a sponge?

In fact, the elementary school I attended had a Polish dual-language program. A good majority of the Polish kids attended to advance both languages simultaneously, but those students often struggled to connect with their non-Polish speaking peers — that difference in language exposure weakened the bonds between students.

Establishing dual-language schools where all students learn a secondary language not only provides students with a foundation for a future of language learning, but as research suggests, it can also aid academic performance and cognitive function. 

Naucz się nowego języka, i zobaczysz że to warto. Co masz do stracenia?

Learn a new language, and you’ll see that it’s worth it. What do you have to lose?