I first fell in love with modern languages while sitting in a café in Amalfi, Italy. As I was waiting for a bus to take me to the lemon farm where I was lodging, four older Italian gentlemen waved me over. Although I was only able to string together a few words in Italian, and they spoke very little English, they somehow succeeded in teaching me the national card game, Scopa. We played for over an hour while they told beautiful sounding and wildly enthusiastic stories, of which I could only guess at the content. In that moment, I longed for the knowledge to join in, and I became impassioned about the study of modern language. Nothing else can truly connect you to a different culture in the way the study of language can.