Every new language you pick up is another group of people you can finally hear.

A language is not just a set of words for things you already think. It carries jokes that do not survive translation, distinctions your own language never bothers to make, and a whole population whose actual voices become available instead of summarized. Translation gives you the content and loses the person. Even a little of the language moves you closer to hearing them.

Start something small and real rather than aiming at fluency, fifteen minutes and one conversation a week. Choose a language you would actually use with somebody near you. The payoff comes early, the first time a person answers you and means it.