Lining up to sign up for a language course, I heard the following conversation:
"Hey, what are you signing up for?"
"Italian."
"Isn't that a useless language?"
"Huh?"
"It's only used in one part of the world-- Italy."
Well, it seems that this person only seems to appreciate the practical value of things. For his information, Italian is only widely used in Switzerland, Solvenia, Croatia and San Marino. About 62 million people can speak Italian.
Let's go back to the issue. Even if a language is very unpopular such as !Kung, Latin and Navejo that does not mean that it is useless. There are so much more to language-- the origin, the style and the emotion in it. I mean, not everything should be taken at its practical value. That's one of the beauty of humanity.
The Alternative: Finding value in the worthless
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