We think of kids playing video games as being in a sort of separation, quiet in their darkened bedrooms. In truth, they are usually communicating with other gamers, via audio or text, about the action on the screen. And sometimes the chatter turns from the world of fantasy to real life.

That’s what happened to 14-year-old Reilly last October. While playing Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, he noticed that an online friend, a 13-year-old from Florida, was not his normal enthusiastic self. Reilly’s sense was confirmed when the friend messaged him, “We need to talk.” Reilly immediately called him.

“He starts to open up about what’s going on in his life: ‘I have nothing to live for; I’m going to kill myself,’” Reilly told nbcconnecticut.com. “He couldn’t even talk; he was crying so much.” Unable to verbally convey his pain, his friend typed out, “Tonight is going to be the night.”

Suicide is a lot to throw at a high school kid in the US, but Reilly, a sophomore (高二学生) at the time, resolved to stay on the line for as long as he was needed. “I knew he didn’t want to be alone, and I didn’t want him to go,” he told WFSB. “He’s my friend. I didn’t want him to die.” For two hours, Reilly said everything he could think of to persuade his friend to embrace life. “I just kept reassuring him, ‘You’ve got a lot to live for,’” says Reilly. “I said, I’ll see you tomorrow. I’m going to be playing with you tomorrow. You promise, nothing is going to happen tonight.’” About that time, Reilly’s parents came home from dinner. He filled them in, and they contacted Florida police, who tracked down the boy.

The troubled teen is doing well now, thanks to a good friend-one he’d never met in person-who was willing to put down the keyboard and lend an ear. Says Reilly’s mother, “You just have to show up and talk to people. And listen.”

As an elementary school teacher, my mother did everything she could to ensure I had good reading skills. This usually consisted of weekend reading lessons at our kitchen table while my friends played outside. My reading ability improved, but the forced reading lessons didn't exactly inspire a love of reading.

High school changed everything. I learned that I couldn't depend on a school or a teacher to teach me what I needed to know. I decided I would no longer allow other people to instruct when and what I read. And without realizing it, I had unexpectedly discovered a key to helping children read-identity.

Instead of focusing on skills and moving students from one reading level to another, we should be asking ourselves this question: How can we inspire children to identify as readers? DeSean, a brilliant first-grader I taught in the Bronx, helped me understand how identify shaped learning. One day during math, I walked up to DeSean and said, "DeSean, you' re a great mathematician." He looked at me and responded, "I'm not a mathematician; I'm a math genius!"

"OK, DeSean, what about your reading?" I asked.

"Mr. lrby, I can't read. I' m never going to learn to read," he would say. I taught DeSean to read, but there were countless boys who remained trapped in illiteracy(文育).

This is why I set up Barbershop Books, a literacy non-profit that creates child-friendly reading spaces in barbershops. The mission（任务）is to help young boys identify as readers. Lots of boys to to the barber shop once or twice a month. Barbershop Books connects reading to a male-centered space and involves men and boy’s early reading experiences.

This identity-based reading program uses a list of children’s books recommended by boys, which inspires children to say three words: I’m a reader.

In a cafe in south London, two construction workers are talking cheerfully. They sometimes break into loud laughter. They are discussing something, and their conversation looks fun and interesting. But I don’t speak their language. Out of curiosity, I interrupt them.

With friendly smiles, they both change easily to English, explaining that they are South Africans and were speaking Xhosa. In Johannesburg, where they are from, most people speak at least five languages, says one of them, Theo Morris. “My mother’s language is Sotho. My father’s is Zulu. I learned Xhosa and Ndebele from my friends and neighbors, and English and Afrikaans from school. I can speak well all of the languages mentioned above. I went to Germany before I came here, so I also speak a little German,” he adds.

“Is it easy to learn so many languages?” “Yes, it’s normal,” he laughs. He’s right. Around the world, more than half of the people speak at least two languages. Many countries have more than one official language — South Africa has 11. People, young or old, are increasingly expected to speak, read and write in at least one of a handful of “super” languages, such as English, Chinese, Hindi, Spanish and Arabic.

Multilingualism (多语言) has many social psychological and lifestyle advantages. Moreover, many health benefits from speaking more than one language have been found, including faster stroke (中风) recovery.

Could it be that the human brain evolves (进化；演变) to be multilingual — that those who speak only one language are not realizing their full potential (潜能)? And in a world that is losing languages faster than ever — one every two weeks, half our languages will disappear hopelessly by the end of the century. What would happen if the rich diversity (多样性) of languages disappeared and most of us ended up speaking only one? That’s a serious problem we are facing.