Zen College Life

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

No doubt you’ve heard people telling you all of their reasons why you need to learn other languages, whether it be to be able to communicate with different groups of minorities, be more marketable, or any of the other ‘regular’ reasons they use to convince you.  Well I have a different reason.  A crazy reason that will undoubtedly change your life.  Wanna hear more?

The greatest reason one could have for learning another language is to see better. (Does he mean to improve their vision?) Exactly, although not exactly. (This guy is nuts…) Allow me to explain.

Language is so much more than just a means of communication.  Language is an art, a science, a culture, an identity, a vision.  Language is a lifestyle.  Learning a language is like seeing the world through different eyes.   Everything is new. A fish isn’t just a fish, but it’s also pez, poisson, Fisch, pesce, De vis, peixe, рыба, fisk, and so much more.  (For those unaware that’s Spanish, French, German, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese,  Russian, and Norwegian. ) For example, in Japanese the word for “wrong” is the same as “different.” Think that has nothing to do with the Japanese vision of life? Think again.

While American English only has 1 word for snow, the Eskimos (Inuit and Aleut) have at least 24 (although it’s rumored that they have over 500) different words to describe what we only know as snow (aput ’snow on the ground’, gana ‘falling snow’, piqsirpoq ‘drifting snow’, and qimuqsuq ‘a snow drift’ are just a few).  I can see how this would be, since it is true that snow has a greater impact on their culture than ours, and therefore also their language.

Another common linguistic legend is that the Greek have at least 4 different words used to express love (each used in the exact same manner as we use love).  This would lead to belief that the Greek are in touch with their love for one another and are better equipped to be vocal about it.

Maybe it’s just me, but facts such as these open my mind’s eye to the idea that the world is seen not by our eyes, but by our ability to consciously describe the information our eyes give us.  If the Eskimos have 24 words to describe snow, they see snow in a way that we cannot. And if this is true, every language on earth has a gift to give us that we couldn’t possibly enjoy with our native tongue.  Depending on where you are located on Earth, the world is something completely different, and the only way to fully understand what life is in each different location is to use that location’s language.

So there you have it.  We will never experience the world in it’s fullness with just English.  We will miss out on the fantastic phenomena that is “seeing the world through another’s eyes,” without the different words of the different worlds.

I don’t know about you, but given the limited amount of time that we are blessed with on Earth, I want to experience it to the fullest.  With this in mind I vow to learn as much as I can about different languages and cultures, and to extend my knowledge to as many different languages as time will permit me to learn.  I want to experience the world and gain everything it has to offer.   If you are reading this that means you do to, so tell the world, in any tongue, that we are here and we want to experience all of the beauty that the world has to offer!

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!