My colleague Julie is learning Italian and I am trying to work on my Spanish. We tend to commiserate with each other over homework and the past tenses which require the brain to work overtime. A philosophical question ‘why, oh why, does subjunctive exist’ has been bothering me for quite some time.

September the 26th is the European Day of Languages. There are over 6000 languages in the world and the European Day of Languages celebrates them all. In London alone 300 languages are spoken. Languages are undoubtedly one of the joys of a multicultural world. The day is also a celebration of learning languages.

A language learner is an explorer in more than one way. There are some fascinating language trivia facts in the European Day of Languages website to start with. For instance, did you know that the sentence "I wonder if I should sit down for a while" can be translated to Finnish in a very economical way using just one word: istahtaisinkohan.

Union learning projects are often asked about beginners Spanish, French or Italian courses because people want to get more out of their holidays. This can be an excellent way to start a learning journey that lasts for decades and leads to enjoying other learning opportunities too.

The Workers’ Educational Association (WEA) and the psychologists from Oxford University have recently conducted joint research with people who take evening classes and found out that taking part in weekly adult education classes improves mental and physical health and increases self-confidence.

Taking those language classes in the local college may then help reap additional benefits on top of the ability to communicate with people. Besides, being able to order the food you like in a restaurant is good for the well-being of your stomach too.

A few amusing mistakes here and there break the ice and give us a funny story to tell others. Someone whose first language is not English just told me the other day how she met a celebrity in the public transport and asked what he was doing there. Later she told her boss she had chatted the celebrity up in the Tube realising only later on that actually they just had had a chat.

Learning a language is fun and pretty rewarding. It is like opening doors and windows bit by bit letting fresh blows of wind in. Communication with other people is so much more fun when you take a plunge with another language. My experience has been that people generally appreciate it when someone makes an effort to speak their language. And who really cares if the grammar is not perfect if you get understood?

And by the way, there is a subjunctive in the English language too. Why, oh why?