Most people aren't going to just walk up to you and tell you outright that learning a language is easy. It's not going to happen because learning a language is not easy and anyone who tells you otherwise is almost definitely selling something.

But though it may not be simple, learning a language is always, always, always worth the agony and by focusing on the things that really matter you can minimise the stress and frustration and find your way to fluency. It won't be easy - but it doesn't have to be a nightmare either.

Why is language learning important?

In a world as globalised as 21st century Earth, it can be easy to slip into the notion that the world's largest languages - French, Spanish, English, Mandarin, etc - are the be-all end-all of linguistic necessity. This could not possibly be further from the truth. It is now more essential than ever for people - especially young people - to take up the cup and foster a worldwide culture of multilingualism.

Languages are essential for business

One of the most common reasons to learn a language - an increase in job opportunities is almost guaranteed for those willing and able to take the time to study a new tongue. Not only can learning a second (or third) language boost your likelihood of finding a new job, it can also sometimes lead to a pay raise or promotion at the job you already have.

More and more employers all over the planet are beginning to see and appreciate the benefits of having multilingual employees and if you want to get on that gravy train you're going to have to push past the hardships, uncertainties and stresses that come with language learning.

Believe me, it's definitely worth it.

Learning a language can make travel easier and more enjoyable

If you've ever visited a foreign country in which your language is not widely spoken you can certainly appreciate why being able to speak the local lingo might be a major boon. While it is true that a large and growing number of countries around the world are now beginning to utilise English in tourist locations and in general, it would be fallacious to state that "most of the world speaks English".

That couldn't be any farther from the truth.

While many do now speak some degree of English, you're going to have a hard time getting by in many - if not most places outside North America, Northwestern Europe, Australia and New Zealand - though there are other exceptions. Many large countries such as those found in Africa, South America, Asia or Eastern Europe are less likely to be as easily navigable without a basic understanding of a local language.

Not only does being able to get by matter - learning a new language will improve the quality and experience of your trip abroad. Knowing how to speak the languages native to the places you're visiting allows you to really dig into the culture, to talk to the average person and to go outside the boundaries of the sterile, boring, touristy spots. If you're not able to speak the local language, you're going to have a hard time getting inside the culture.

Language learning has many mental health benefits

Learning a new language can actually improve your brain and memory in a number of positive ways. Studying a language can improve your memory and your ability to rationalise and make more thorough and well formulated decisions.

There is even ample evidence to suggest that it can have a serious impact on the likelihood of developing Alzheimer's disease and other dementia related issues later on down the road.

No matter how you look at it - learning a new language may be frustrating, but with benefits such as these, and the possibility of an increased IQ, it's becoming harder and harder to say no.

Learning a new language opens you up to a world of new entertainment

From books to movies to music, attaining a conversational fluency in a second language more or less doubles the entertainment available to you.

Language such as German and Russian have tens of thousands of books and writings that have never been (and may never be) translated into English. Simply by learning one of those two languages you immediately open yourself up to a lifetime of new reading material - material that likely includes an entirely new perspective unlike everything else you've read before.

Many countries produce a plethora of native language movies and television shows.

Take France for example!

France has one of the world's oldest and most popular film traditions - to the point where "French films" are a genre all their own in the US and other English speaking countries. A countless number of French films - often not even dubbed or subtitled into other languages - are ripe for the taking and if you're a movie buff you'd be doing yourself a disservice if you neglected to take advantage of the opportunity to broaden your film exposure.

The same can be said of India's Bollywood film scene - now the largest in the world, beating out Hollywood by a wide margin.

You've never heard of a lot of the films produced in India because you don't speak an Indian language. While it's true that some Bollywood productions are written in English, many - if not most - are not, and may never be.

And of course there's music as too. If you're a metal head and don't speak a Scandinavian language, you're really missing out. The Nordic countries are known for their hard core rock and metal scenes and while again, some of that is performed in English - it is still mostly sung in one of the major Scandinavian languages.

This is just one such example of the countless musical repertoires from around the world that a student of a second language can be exposed to.

Conclusion

The above are only a taste of the myriad of reasons why learning a language is worth suffering through all the pain. The rewards are well worth the trials and if you go about learning a second language with motivation and goals in mind it doesn't have to be as hellish as you think.

It's not going to be an easy - or especially short - journey, but the payoff is absolutely worth it. So what are you waiting for? Get cracking!

As technology marches ever forward towards the singularity - the point at which AI meets and then surpasses human capacity and develops autonomy - we may have become a little bit tech-blind.

The capabilities of our gadgets and software far surpass those of the 90s, let alone the 80s, 70s, 60s...and so on and so forth. We rely on tech for everything - to the point wherein we no longer always even see it

There are, however, still a few things that you really shouldn't trust to a robot just yet…

Chief among them is translation.

The software just isn't there yet. You are ill advised to trust the multilingual reiteration of your important documents, website or - really any valuable content at all - to the whims of a bot and the consequences of doing so can be catastrophic to yourself, your personal affairs, or your business.

This is why you need to keep it real

Yes, it's true, plugging your valuable medical records into Bing or Google Translate seems like a pretty easy solution to a relatively big - and often expensive - issue, but do you really want to run the risk of Google telling your new doctor that you take the wrong drug?

Translations are no joke and are not to be trusted to AI.  A quick Google image search for "translation fails" will show you why you shouldn't be so quick to place your reliance on a bot.

The human touch

By ensuring that your translator has a pulse that isn't generated by the power strip on your floor, you ensure that your work has a human touch.

Why does this matter?

People know people better than robots know people. If we accept that language is the essence of interpersonal communication, then we can also accept that we have a unique bond of empathy, tradition and cultural understanding between us - at least most of the time.

The human element is the difference between a website that is warm and welcoming to a new target language visitor because it was properly localised by a professional translator and one that is not.

Robots do not understand nuance. They lack the capacity to empathise and to create a bond. Robots don't understand idioms, slang, regional colloquialisms or phraseological constructs.

A translator's job isn't simply about transposing words. This individual is actually responsible for interpreting each word of text and trying to convey its proper and equivalent meaning.

Human communication is shockingly complex. If you step back and actually think about it for a moment you can begin to see how we have evolved to produce strange series of sounds with our tongues and throats and lips to tell other people what we want, what's on our mind, or when to run away from the hungry bears.

Computerised translation still isn't really sentient. It doesn't know why we do the things we do - only that we do them. It doesn't understand the value of the citizenship documentation you need translated or why your company needs to tailor its website to a new market in Hong Kong.

Is there a place for machine translation?

You mean other than the rubbish bin?

Yes, actually, there is. Machine translation such as Google Translate is perfectly acceptable for translating single words or short phrases here and there. If you need to know the Azerbaijani word for turnip (It's şalğam, because we both know you were wondering), you can do that without too much fear.

But you wouldn't want to use GT to translate your personal records or expand your business in Azerbaijan. For that you would need to use a certified, trained and hopefully experienced professional translator who has specifically studied the nuances and the slang and even history of the Azeri people.

Google Translate isn't without its uses. It is best suited for tasks such as translating that noodle thing on your online Chinese takeout order menu to make sure it's gluten free, or checking the different words for "turnip" in every language you can think of - just because you were curious and had too much time on your hands.

Translation software is perfectly suited to giving you a rough idea of a website's content - but it should not be relied upon for anything that involves a specific, important message. It should not be relied on for communicating your brand's message. And it most certainly should not be used for anything involving the exchange of money.

Don't become a meme

If you use anything less than a human translator for your business or website's globalisation campaigns you may end up ruing the day you decided to expand.

Moves such as this are the kind of thing that turn up on humour pages on Facebook and Reddit in the form of ridiculous memes. A mistranslated campaign slogan can quickly become a reputation-damaging joke if someone who doesn't understand regional slang attempts to convert their words from English to, let's say.... Brazilian Portuguese.

In the 1960s when American automobile company Ford began marketing its Pinto model in Brazil, it neglected to do its research - or hire a proper Brazilian Portuguese translator. The name Pinto in Brazil is actually a slang term for a rather less than well endowed man.

Not exactly the message a car company wants to be sending.

The name was ultimately changed to something more appropriate, but not before the damage was done. Making sure that a major product is properly checked out by someone who knew even the smallest bit of Brazilian slang would have saved Ford a lot of hassle.

This was long before machine translation was anything more than a strange prop on Star Trek, but the truth is that it hasn't changed much today when it comes to the importance of checking things like slang or regionalisms.

Conclusion

Someday machine translation may reach a level at which it is capable of understanding the deepest nuances of the human brain. That day is, however, not about to dawn any time soon.

For now you're stuck with good old fashioned translators - and that's a good thing. Not only by investing in an authentic translator are you ensuring higher quality work - you're also giving yourself a bit more of a human touch.

A good translator will work closely with you to best achieve your needs. They can offer insights and opinions on related topics and will really go the extra mile to ensure that you're getting the quality you need.

The old saying "you reap what you sow" has traditionally been applied to bad decision making. The urge to cut corners, save pennies and trim the fat on business and personal expenses is always on our minds. We're constantly on the lookout for lower prices, sales, deals, clearances and other ways to make stretch our dime.

And we should be. There's nothing wrong with being thrifty, especially as a business owner or manager.

However, there are three major things that you should never, ever skimp on: anniversary gifts, sushi and important document or business translations.

Shoddy gifts and cut-rate petrol station sushi are pretty obvious. The first my earn you a slap, the other may cause you an extended stay in the washroom. It's the third, though, that could cause irreparable damage to your business, a never ending hailstorm of legal issues and could potentially even mess with your identity.

High quality translations matter for your business

If your business is expanding overseas, working with international employees or contractors, localising your products and website, or starting new marketing campaigns abroad, a poor translation can hurt your company in more ways than one.

When you're first introduced to a new product or service, what do you base that initial impression on?
Most would say that it's in the presentation and the comprehensibility of the product and its relevance to you. When I visit a website, searching for a product - or even just a relevant article, poor translations have me heading for the return button faster than you can say 'Google Translate".

The average visitor to your website is going to spend less than 15 seconds on your site before going back to Google or moving on to something else. If your website isn't properly translated and engaging that time could be even lower. It doesn't matter if you're selling the cure for cancer, if people can't immediately see the value and understand it fully in those few, precious seconds, you may as well not even exist.

A proper translation - that is, one not scribbled by a cut-rate, cheapo, nameless individual in a darkened room with no windows - will at least appear more professional to your potential clients, and that first appeal is going to be essential in not making yourself look like a fool.

But moving beyond that, your existing clients need to be aware of the full range of services you offer. They need to be clear on the terms and conditions of your company. Your foreign contractors need to be completely in the loop, and you just can't do this with Google Translate.

Furthermore, a lousy translation can cost you a lot of money - and perhaps worse; reputation. If your presentation to a foreign market doesn't pass muster your product or services may come across poorly, in turn reflecting on the quality of your business and yourself.

As just one example; in 2009 the major global bank, HSBC faced reparations worth 10 million USD when their globalisation campaign's marketing slogan was mistranslated  from "assume nothing" to "do nothing." You can probably see without too much assistance why this relatively small mistake was catastrophic to the company.

You really don't want this to happen to you, and the best way to avoid this is by finding and working with a higher quality translator. The increased cost may be a drop in the bucket versus the amount you may otherwise pay.

Don't be stingy on important personal documents either

When it comes to translating your most valuable documents - things like birth and marriage certificates or academic qualifications - you really don't want to be messing around with the cheapest options.

Your birth certificate or marriage license are documents you keep forever (hopefully, anyway). It doesn't matter where you go, you're always going to need to have them ready for whatever foreign adventures come your way.

If you move or live abroad, travel frequently or are otherwise in frequent contact with official entities that do not speak your native language you need to be prepared! 

I cannot overstate the importance of not being a cheapskate here.

Let's say you purchase a mediocre translation of your birth certificate for your Russian visa- or perhaps you decide to translate it yourself using software and a big old dictionary. What could possibly happen?

The worst case scenario is that you mistranslate some vital piece of information that ends up causing you legal, identity issues down the road. This can be a serious hassle when trying to negotiate and sort work documents, visas, passports, housing, health insurance or of taxes.

A sub-standard translation of your official documents abroad can cause applications for schools, jobs, loans and insurances to be denied, and miscommunication surrounding taxes paid or owed is probably hard enough in the local language, let alone yours. Mistakes such as these can lead to years of bureaucracy, fees and mind numbing anxiety.

Legalese is complex enough all by itself, you really don't need to complicate it further by causing any shortcomings in understanding between you and the parties with which you operate, just to save a few bucks.

Language is complex stuff

Language encodes everything, from the way we communicate to the way that we perceive the world around us. As such, nuance can run so precariously between speakers of different tongues that it truly takes an expert to navigate the subtleties.

These subtleties are not to be trifled with lightly. Often, the slightest of errors can cause a massive misunderstanding between parties that results in financial or personal woes.

Buying the cheapest translator you can find for your business is analogous to playing with fire. Maybe they get it right, maybe they don't.

Do you really want to take the risk when your business's money is at stake?

Do you really want to gamble on your personal documents, your visa or your child's birth certificate?

I should hope not.

A good translation is rarely cheap, but a cheap translation is rarely good.