This book is essentially a persuasive essay arguing in favor of the study of foreign languages, and specifically degree programs in interpreting and translation (not the same thing!). The first chapter had some "learning languages is good for you because it is good for you" circular logic that was initially worrying, but more interesting points come up later in the book.

A particular passage that stood out to me spoke of how strongly focused certain scientific fields have become towards solely using English as a "language of science". But that's resulted in instances where research is unintentionally being repeated because the English-speaking researchers weren't aware that their work had already been conducted and published by non-English teams. The last chapter also spoke about how native English speakers have a unique "responsibility" to basically meet foreign speakers halfway rather than just expect the world to bend to their language as the default; I found that discussion interesting.

Also just some fun tidbids thrown in throughout like studies suggesting that multilinguals are better at conflict resolution than monolinguals, and also knowing a second language can delay Alzheimer's by about 4 years. Interesting, quick little read.