What are the benefits of learning multiple languages?

Five countries, five languages, one aim: to show that it makes sense to learn more than just one foreign language. This idea was at the beginning of the International Symposium on Foreign Language Teaching and Learning Research, which was jointly hosted by the Goethe-Institut Tokyo and the German Academic Exchange Office (DAAD) Tokyo, and which this volume documents. Based on the latest findings of cutting-edge research, the symposium aimed to examine the potential of multilingualism and plurilingualism for individuals, educational institutions, and societies; it also aspired to establish and strengthen synergies between researchers and teachers of the five languages which are the most popular second languages after English in Japan: Spanish, Korean, German, French and Chinese. However, it not only targeted the research community itself but also had the ambition to bridge the gap between the research community and the general public interested in foreign language learning and research. We believe this multi-faceted approach – both in terms of the different languages involved and the audience – is also reflected in the articles compiled in this book, which span from scientific papers to an interview with Kawashima Eiji, a member of the Japanese national soccer team.