The world is a wonderful place, and so are the people in it.

That's something my husband, Grit, and I rediscovered when we were given airline tickets to anywhere in Europe to mark two milestones in our life.

What an amazing gift. But how do you decide where to go when there are so many wonderful places?

Throw a dart at a map with your eyes closed? Read travel books? Consult with friends?

We didn't throw darts, but we did some serious thinking. Finally, we decided to take the advice of our son, Mike, and fly to Barcelona and then cruise to different ports in Italy and France, areas we had not been before.

He suggested we do what he and his wife, Shayne, did: Get off the boat at the ports of call, rent a scooter (which are so plentiful in Europe), get a good map and go off exploring for the day.

However, there was no way we would dare do that.

Why?

Because he can speak Spanish, which means he can also work through Italian and guess at French.

My husband and I can't.

Let me tell you, people who were not lazy like us and learned to speak another languages have a definite advantage when traveling.

Come to think of it, it's a definite advantage in life, because it gives an awareness of and interest in other cultures — it opens one's eyes so to speak.

For so many years English has been a seemingly dominant language, but checking the "CIA World Fact Book," it appears that only 5.6 percent of the total population of the world have their primary language as English.

When factoring in those who speak English as a second or third language it works out that four-fifths of the world's population doesn't speak English.

It is pretty naieve to think we can get by in the world with just one language.

Humorist Dave Barry had it right when he said, "Americans who travel abroad for the first time are often shocked to discover that, despite all the progress that has been made in the last 30 years, many foreign people still speak in foreign languages."

It isn't as if we haven't traveled before, but at least in my case it has mainly been to countries where it was easy to find people who spoke English.

As we went forward on Grit and Sherry's amazing adventure, especially in Spain, it became evident how our lack of a language inhibited us.

We laughed at ourselves as we thought back to how we thought we would rent a car and drive around on our own. Driving in new areas is hard enough, but when you can't read the road signs … well, it's not going to work.

During our adventure we met a young couple from Denmark who were living in Belgium. Besides their native language they also spoke French, Spanish, English, Italian and some German. A French teenager was entertaining their 3-year-old son. The boy couldn't speak French but could understand it.

The interchange was fascinating to watch and we coveted their abilities.

There is a Czech saying: "You live a new life for every new language you speak. If you know only one language, you live only once."

Habla espanol, anyone?

e-mail: sasyoung2@aol.com