This morning, we visited the United Nations Geneva for a tour. I’m a bit embarrassed to admit this, but I still haven’t visited the UN in New York for a tour even though I have lived here for over seven years, but at least I can somewhat make up for it by visiting the second largest UN here in Geneva. As we waited for our English tour to begin, I watched as one of the UN employees, who initially sounded like he was French, speak in completely fluent Mandarin Chinese with a Chinese man and woman. They discussed intensely the need to know many languages regardless of what country you are in, as it would always come in handy. And in this case, working at the UN, of course it wouldn’t be surprising to meet people who speak two, three, four, even five languages. I’m sure a number of UN employees could even know all six official UN languages.

It reminded me of one of my colleagues with whom I work closely. One day, we were talking about a lot of random things, and we talked about how even when we are speaking the same language, we can oftentimes misinterpret what the other is saying. Communication is best in person since written word’s tone can so often be misunderstood and misinterpreted, but then if you don’t even speak the same language, it would be even more difficult. “If I had a super power, I’d want to be able to speak every single language,” my colleague said. “Then, I’d be able to communicate with everyone and understand everyone better!”

It would be amazing to speak every single language in the world. But the more I think about it, being able to speak different languages also means that you need to understand all of the cultures that they come from, which is a huge, daunting challenge in itself. You cannot really truly learn an language in a language silo. Colloquialisms that are unique to each language reveal nuances of cultures that we may not consciously think about, but these nuances are key to understanding people who come from cultures different than ours. Learning the language is one step closer to understanding, but learning the culture is the next.