I wish we as society could simply have one language to overcome language barriers, but that’s more of a content for my daydreaming.
I often encounter issues due to language barriers.
Mainly with 2 languages.
Since the start of war, I’ve been encountering lots of Ukrainians I can’t really speak with. Especially when I was on a dorm, where they were a great majority.
Not that I tend to talk with people, but I felt weird after a while.
Probably like someone who doesn’t speak Spanish in the US (at least I assume that’s fairly common over there).
And now searching for a job, I found many companies want you to know German.
Which I also encountered as “would’ve been useful now” a few times.
Seems like I should know an answer to this, as English isn’t my first language, but I have no fucking idea how I picked it up. I never made any serious attempt (i.e.: studying for more than a week) to learn it.
We sort of do. English. I say sort of, because obviously its not 100% but its the closest thing we have. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_as_a_lingua_franca
In my country, we have two official languages, Finnish and Swedish. Finnish is the main language but everyone has to learn Swedish as well. But we also have mandatory English lessons and in fact, we teach more English than Swedish, even though Swedish is a official language and English is not. I learned English from grade 3 to grade 9, Swedish from grade 7 to grade 9. I also took voluntary German and French, but I’ve forgotten most of those.
As to to your main question, the best way to learn a language is to use it. Duolingo and such apps are pretty much useless, they get you started, but if you don’t use the language you might as well be memorizing random words.