I've been at my job for 4 months and work with mostly foreign scientists, so I've learned lots about cultures and languages. I happen to work with an Italian M.D. (Who I share a desk with) and for the past two months we've had an Italian student working with us (he lives near vicchio!) so I've gotten to hear and speak a little Italian with them. Just an example of how languages help no matter your career seeing as I'm doing cancer research but constantly have to explain English words to my coworkers if they don't understand or use translators so we can communicate our interpretations of data to each other. Even if I don't speak the same language as someone, knowing what it's like to be somewhere that doesn't speak your language helps me communicate more effectively.
