I was revisiting some Top Gear episodes and Jeremy Clarkson DVDs a while ago for some inspiration for AutoJab. One segment in Clarkson’s The Good, the Bad and the Ugly DVD feature him ambush quizzing several Americans on the Las Vegas strip asking them about Europe. Not one of them got anything right. Yeah, combine that with the Miss Teen USA contestant from South Carolina’s mangled answer to a question on geography, it doesn’t look too good for the denizens of the richest country on the planet.

Geography lessons aside, one criticism to American intellect is that most Americans are monolingual. in the 2000 census, 82.1% speak no other language but English. In the advent of globalization, the rest of the world are learning at least two - English and their native languages. If you belong to the 82.1%, why get left behind knowing just English?

Learning another language can be quite tough since it’s just natural as we get older. However, that shouldn’t stop you from learning. With the right mix of effort and enthusiasm, you’ll be conversing using other languages in no time. Besides, you might be dealing with a foreign client on of these days. A vacation somewhere overseas soon, perhaps? At least you’d know how to ask where the heck is the washroom.

Here are some tips on how you can learn a language as an self-enrichment project.

Take classes. If you’re interested in enriching yourself, you might want to enroll in language classes. It’s always best if you get some guided classroom instruction and interaction to expose you to the basics of the languages.

Practice. Worried that you won’t be able to practice using the language? Don’t. You might be surprised at the number of people who can speak other languages too. It’s a fact that immigration has helped diversify the population in terms of race and culture. Many of these immigrants carried with them their native languages. Around 20% of the population can speak Spanish, a couple of million can speak Chinese, more than a million can speak the following - French, German, Tagalog, Vietnamese and Italian.

Play CDs while driving. Pop in those language learning CDs when you’re stuck in traffic. At least you get to enrich yourself while waiting in the jam. Or rip and store them in your iPod or MP3 player so that you can learn while commuting, mowing the lawn, or walking the dog.

Use software. There are a lot of language learning software available out there. I’ve used Rosetta Stone before to help me with my Spanish and it helped me a lot. It is unfortunately paid software but it’s worth it.

Use the Internet. There are language learning podcasts that can help you (like this one for Spanish). You can also enter message boards and chatrooms and try to interact with users of that language. A lot of people from other countries use boards and chatrooms to practice their English, why not do the same to learn another language.