Should every student learn a second language at school?

Should every student learn a second language at school? I believe that students should have to learn a second language at school, for reasons such as it gives them a backstory about cultures/ their own cultures, If they were to go travelling then they have at least the basics or just to give them something extra to learn.

Students should learn a second language at school for cultural reasons. I think that this provides a good education for students about their own or other peoples history and what their families have been through during the past centuries or decades. It also teaches them about what kind of music, foods and other traditional material.

Not only is it for cultural reasons, but also it helps them if they are to ever go travelling to a foreign country. It gives them the knowledge they need for asking questions such as “Where is this or that?” But it can also help when reading things if they need to go to a certain destination in that country. It can also help when reading information on food packaging, for example, if you are allergic to peanuts or something like that you can read if the product contains peanuts so that you don’t have an allergic reaction because of not knowing what was in the product.

It’s not just it has to be cultural or gives them the basics when travelling to a foreign country but it can also just give students something extra to learn. For example, in year 7 and 8 most schools learn 2 languages, at Hornby these languages are Maori and Japanese. I think it’s really interesting learning about all the different aspects of some languages and I think it’s really cool that schools are offering students an opportunity to learn them.

These are a few of the reasons why I think that every student should learn a new language at school. It gives them a look at the cultural aspects, It's good knowledge to have if travelling to a different country and it gives students an extra thing to learn at school. I definitely think it’s an opportunity that's not to be turned down.