I didn't feel inspired, but rather a profound sadness, stemming from the video's inherent 'ivory tower' perspective. It exudes a kind of superiority that fails to acknowledge real-world complexities.
The speaker's premise is that learning a foreign language is the path to overcoming bigotry and bridging cultures. However, this argument seems to have the causality reversed. It conveniently ignores the deep-seated conflicts that exist even within the same linguistic community.
Isn't it more accurate to say that if a person already possesses a mindset of empathy and a genuine appreciation for diversity, they will seek to understand others and desire peace, regardless of their linguistic skills? Language, in this context, is merely a tool.
And like any tool, language can be used to build or to destroy. It can be a weapon of cultural colonialism just as easily as it can be a bridge. What truly connects humanity is the sincere intention to connect. It is this intention that imbues the 'pain' of learning with profound meaning and value.
The video's fundamental flaw is that it conflates the technical challenge of acquiring a language with the much deeper, more meaningful struggle of fostering genuine human understanding. It mistakes the tool for the intention.