Several decades ago, when I graduated high school and was wondering what I would do with my life I faced a choice. Should I take the now common “gap year” and travel the world, or should I enrol directly in university ?

Oft quoted wisdom recommends that programmers looking to better themselves in their craft should frequently learn new programming languages.

Polyglotism is in many ways like visiting a new country. You pick a destination from a list that interest you, choose a time when the weather is nice; not too hot, not to rainy, arrange your travel, and book your leave.

Maybe you do a little research before you go, looking up the local attractions and learn a few basic phrases (although you know your accent will always give you away).

Travel helps you broaden your horizons. You get to meet the locals, experience the weather, the food, their dialect. You visit the famous monuments, the popular hangouts, and take in the night life. Maybe you have a friend who can show you their favourite haunts, off the beaten track, so you can feel like a local, in the know. Perhaps you hire a guide who helps you experience a safe, less homogenised, version of the city.

Then, once you’ve had your time abroad, exhausted, you slump down in your airplane seat to return home. You reflect on the people you’ve met, how their experiences are different to your own, what it would have been like to grow up with their challenges and their opportunities. Then it’s back to your old life and your old routine. Maybe, you dream, one day you’ll visit that city again.

This post is not a rejection of polyglotism any more than it is a rejection of tourism for personal growth. There is a great deal of difference between spending a week or two in a foreign city, and emigrating there. Don’t think because you’ve spent a week with a language in the summer you know what it is like to live there permanently.