At the beginning of the book “How to Learn Any Language the Quick and Dirty Way”, A.G. Hawke puts the quote “To learn another language is to gain another soul. I think it’s entirely coupled with culture (probably why people living in total immersion learn quicker), and when you learn another language, the culture comes along with it. You also get to go somewhere completely out of your normal “comfort zone” and see how others live.

The other night I was telling someone that as a soldier in Afghanistan, I was somewhat (very loosely) like an Anthropologist–I got to go into houses and look around at how they lived. I also learned Pashto in two months enough to hold a decent conversation.

Right now I live with one Persian (Iranian) and one Tajik (Afghan). The house is a-changing more Persian every day. heh. I think that’s a good thing. Hopefully I’ll get some good language exchange out of it.