Yes to multilingualism!
As a language teacher, I’m a huge advocate for multilingualism. Not only because I’ve been studying languages for most of my life, or because I’ve been shown time and time again in my university classes the numerous advantages of multilingualism, but mostly because I experience the beauty of multilingualism on a daily basis with my students.
Speaking more than one language allows children (and adults!) to know the world better and more broadly. By learning a language, we also learn the cultures and traditions that it is a part of. And, in my opinion, there is no better way to create responsible and respectful citizens than by teaching and sharing the many languages and cultures of the world.
Beyond that, research has shown that multilinguals gain specific advantages, both cognitive and otherwise, over monolinguals. "Multilingual speakers use the languages at their disposal as a resource in communication, and as their repertoire is wider, they usually have more resources available than monolingual speakers" (Cenoz, 2013 : 11). It also been shown that "multilinguals of different ages develop resources that allow them to perform better on some metalinguistic tasks and an even slow down some aspects of the cognitive decline associated with aging" (idem: 7). On top of that, bilinguals have been shown to be more creative (Fürst and Grin, 2021 : 1486). And because out concepts of the world are formed and fashioned through language, multilinguals can approach different situations with a wider variety of understanding (on top of their knowledge of their greater knowledge of other cultures).
The good news for everyone: it has never been so easy to learn a new language! "The development of multimedia technology, communication channels, and media has encouraged multimodal literacy" (Cenoz, 2013: 10). With so many resources online (and with the engaging teaching provided by Meli’s School!), you can begin your multilingual journey with more ease and comfort than anyone ever could before!
References:
Cenoz, J. (2013). Defining Multilingualism. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 33, 3-18. doi:10.1017/S026719051300007X
Fürst, G., & Grin, F. (2021). Multicultural experience and multilingualism as predictors of creativity. International Journal of Bilingualism, 25(5), 1486–1494. doi:10.1177/13670069211019468