This semester in Greek class we're going through my little book Linguistics for Students of New Testament Greek. One of the things we talk about there is the fact that to be a linguist you do not necessarily have to be a polyglot, or a person who can speak several languages. That's a good thing, especially for us 'Muricans. As the old saying puts it:
Someone who speaks three languages is called trilingual.
Someone who speaks two languages is called bilingual.
Someone who speaks only their own language is called an American.
That said, I think it can help us in doing New Testament exegesis if we can speak two or more languages. You see, the goal of all my teaching is to help my students acquire the ability -- to a degree-- to think in Greek and not just translate it. When I speak German, I don't translate it from the English. I don't translate at all. The goal of all language study, as far as I'm concerned, is to reach a point where words mean what they mean, and not merely the equivalent of your native language. This isn't impossible. On the contrary. If you put in enough time and effort, you'll get there eventually.
This is how German and English work with me. Both languages mash up in my head and become one. So I don't think, "This is x in German and y in English." People don't really think in language, though all monolingual people think they do. All of us think in a kind of meta-language that is independent of the language we are using at any given time to communicate. Of course, when you're thinking about communicating, then you do think in the language you're intending to communicate in. But the rest of the time, you don't. Either way, I rarely translate when it comes to speaking German or Hawaiian Pidgin. But I do need to do that whenever I'm trying to speak, say, Spanish.
I see this as a door analogy. I have mainly an "English door," so when I'm trying to speak Spanish everything goes through that door because my mind doesn't know any better. Now I imagine I have a new "Spanish door," and I try to let the Spanish just kind of flow in.
Greek has its own door, as does German and a few other languages. I just know the right words to say.
I'd like to get my students to the point where Greek just comes naturally. That would be really cool. But it will take quite a long time to get there.