Human languages have been around since the birth of the first community. It is a means of communication, teaching, learning, describing, discussing, dictating, inspiring… Words form sentences, sentences form meaning, meaning gives life.
We understand each other through the words we give, but more so through the language our bodies sculpt. Communication is easier when we speak the same language, yet this is not a requisite. I remember being a child, knowing only my mother tongue and still playing with children on playgrounds outside the borders of my country.
Learning another language brings forth the advantage of connection, companionship, and sharing of ideas. It narrows the world but broadens the perspective. Learning a new language is the key to opening up new doors, it’s the hand that shakes others in welcome. But does learning a new language have a backside? If we flip the coin, do we get another tail of interrelation, or is it a head full of concern and occupation?
When we unify communication through a single language, we achieve a better understanding of each other. However, does the dictionary swallow the understanding of individual cultures and disclosures? There are myriad, nay numberless, arguments, reasons, appreciations which can be derived from a single language. Expertise may be nothing without specific languages. Knowledge, which is brought to life by language, may be buried with the language if we allow it to go extinct. When acquiring the ability to speak another language, I am not sure if we always grasp the vastness of the underlying knowledge, and when we unify languages, however beneficial this also is, I believe there are concepts we lose—maybe forever.
However, in uniting through a single spoken language, we close gaps between humans and humanity, and maybe the combining of multiple apprehensions will compensate for the knowledge no longer readily available in the different words spoken of various tongues. Nevertheless, I think it is important to understand the division of cultures that languages put forward, the homogenising effects of unifying languages, and where the balance between individuality and uniformity lies.
Ultimately, I think the uniting ability of languages lies in the connecting powers both verbal and body language possess. Together they encompass understanding across cultures and norms, and no matter what or how many languages we speak, language will continue to be the force that holds our appreciation of the world together.
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