I like the comparison between learning the language of math and learning a foreign language. In both cases, learning the language gives you increased access to more culture, history, knowledge, and means to express yourself. This is a good way to answer "Why do need to learn math?" which people often ask me. As in "What am-I going to use this for?"
I don't like the idea of learning math INSTEAD of a foreign language, since both are meaningful and interesting for different reasons.
In writing math books I often had to come up with various analogies to try to motivate readers to invest the time---look, if you get through these hairy equations you'll have access to powerful math modelling skills and be able to read Wikipedia pages that have equations in them without going into panic. I'll add the "learn a new language for the culture/history" angle too, not sure which is more convincing...
I don't like the idea of learning math INSTEAD of a foreign language, since both are meaningful and interesting for different reasons.
In writing math books I often had to come up with various analogies to try to motivate readers to invest the time---look, if you get through these hairy equations you'll have access to powerful math modelling skills and be able to read Wikipedia pages that have equations in them without going into panic. I'll add the "learn a new language for the culture/history" angle too, not sure which is more convincing...