The forum of language is the means through which every human being develops a relationship with another, holds a conversation, understands the thoughts of an individual or a group and also frames the ideas of his or her own perspective.  International dialogue depends on a forum of many languages.  A foreign language reveals to its students a new means of communication, new cultural perspectives and traditions of thinking.  Students of foreign languages help to create new cultural bridges, form new ideas and establish mutual understandings between cultures.  Anyone who wishes for international peace values the knowledge that each culture offers.  Knowledge of a foreign language is essential to understand any pervasive tradition of thinking or being and to build unity between cultures because to relate and unify with another human being is to understand them.  However, societies often abandon this process because of the lack of basic needs, the polarizing effects of politics and intercultural misunderstandings even though intercultural communication is becoming more and more important in a global society.  As Mohandas Ghandi said, “No culture can live, if it attempts to be exclusive.”

     Ever interconnected and global societies require intercultural understanding to sustain the political, social, and economic accords that preserve international peace.  Those who speak foreign languages are agents to maintain the bonds between the cultures of the languages he or she speaks.  International diplomacy depends on the cultural connections established by language.  Understanding the values of another culture and how they relate to one’s own cultural values forms unities as well as a body of knowledge.

To study a foreign language is to explore the traditions of human existence.  Every language reveals cultural modes of thought, culminating a philosophy, which infers a perspective about the human condition.  Language is the means to explore the many perspectives about basic human questions of “What living is for,” and “What it means to be a human being.”  To understand the cultural perspectives to these questions is to learn a tradition of human knowledge which helps one to evaluate history, current situations and their future implications.

      Language is the keeper of all learning.  One learns the cultural values that unite societies in common understanding through language.  One learns the cultural traditions of knowledge through language.  A united international society depends upon the pursuit of knowledge that creates dialogue and reveals shared values.