Introduction
One of the most empowering human acts is that of expression; transforming an inner thought, emotion or idea into a form that others can understand and share. Language in itself is a fascinating concept—that sounds, which become known as words, carry meaning and convey ideas for abstract terms. It is a remarkable thing to be able to take those sounds and arrange them in such a way that they carry forward powerful messages, rich in their texture and potent in their composition. In almost every instance, these sounds, that can also be represented symbolically, i.e., in writing, reflect the way we experience life.
This essay will look into the following issues:
• Languages and our world today
• The Functions of Language
• Evolution of languages
• Preserving Languages and Highlighting Their Importance
• Globalization and Language
• The Role of TakingITGlobal in the International Language Dialogue
• A Conclusion
Languages and our world today
Several societies encourage people to speak more than one language. Often this is because of the way different cultures co-exist or relate to one another. In Africa, where I am from, many people speak several languages and that is not really considered extraordinary. It becomes a way of life to speak more than one language when different ethnic groups live next to each other or form parts of the same society. For people to get by, they need to learn the languages of another. As a result of the multilingual environment, languages allow people to cross bridges and to participate in another cultures experience of the world. In some unfortunate cases, as is clearly demonstrated in civil conflicts such as that which took place in Rwanda and Burundi in the 90s, these differences reinforce negative social situations—civil war, ethnic violence, genocide. Therefore I will state from the very onset that languages are not always a positive thing, but that when abused, can create social challenges. However, this article hopes to focus on the positive element of languages. It will explore the theme of language from different angles and make a case for embracing language as a tool for development, fostering cultural understanding and creating a better world economically, socially and culturally.
Historically, language has been one of the main tools of oppression. The oppressors often devised strategies aimed and stripping a whole people of their language amongst other things. Language represents a means of survival, a cultural reality, and a way of life. It is perhaps just as important as any other asset that people have. Destroying it significantly affects the way that a culture progresses. In some cases, education systems were designed to deliberately teach the colonialist’s language and to reinforce its dominance. Often, traditional languages were associated with shame, inferiority and being uneducated.
The impact of these calculated attempts to break different groups by attacking their culture, specifically, their language, can still be seen years after the oppression and injustices officially end. In many cases, traditional languages are being left behind because of the need to advance economically which often hinges on the ability to speak a dominant global language such as English, Spanish or French. For a lot of people, this has become a necessity to be able to survive in the modern world with its knowledge-based economy. You cannot work in the global economy if you cannot speak a major language. In other cases, people associate progress, development and success in life with being able to master that which is foreign and portrayed as advanced. Oftentimes, this means that people embrace languages other than their own in an attempt to show that they are educated or sophisticated yet at the same time, extending the legacy of and injustice and oppression.
The impact of economics on languages is extremely strong. Indigenous peoples from the Andes, the Native Peoples of North America, the Aboriginal Peoples of New Zealand and Australia, the billions of people from Asia and Africa whose languages are not international are left with little choice but to take on other languages to compete as equals in the global marketplace. There exist very little rewards for learning and mastering their own languages (with musicians being amongst the rare exceptions as music finds many non-verbal ways to overcome barriers.)
As I already mentioned, colonialism, imperialism and others forms of domination and oppression sought to take people apart by denying them the right to speak and develop their own languages, resulting in devastating psychological and social effects. I believe that the thing which one knows most, and knows best is their language. Not only is it what builds societies and allows people to communicate and connect, it is that which also allows introspection, self-evaluation and development. Hence language is also as much a personal thing, as it is societal. It is that which lets you have those very important conversations with yourself. It provides a sense of security, assuredness, and identity. You peacefully dream and think in the language you’re most comfortable with. Therefore losing the ability to do so is no doubt a very damaging loss. This emphasizes two key points:
1. That owning, developing and living in a culture’s own language is fundamentally important because of the effects language has on both the individual and the group.
2. Understanding another language allows you to get to the core of who another person (or culture) is and what really makes them tick!
I really believe that languages are the tools for navigating the world. The loss of those tools results in the loss of direction of those that have lost or are losing their language, regardless of what the cause of the loss is. It’s the same sense of disorientation that an explorer feels when her compass breaks on a dark night and she has nothing to use to help her find her bearings!
A lot of people suffer from poverty in this world, not only because of the simple absence of wealth but as a result of people being left outside of the economic structures and processes. All over the world there are examples of people that have been stripped of their tools to effectively participate in the structures that define today’s societies and economies. Efforts and interventions to help them integrate and to develop economically don’t achieve the desired results because the fundamental tools for navigating those worlds have been deliberately and systematically destroyed over time. If we are to talk about economic and social development, we should think beyond just production, supply, demand and markets, and also look at empowering people to be active participants in the world. Languages (and other aspects of culture) are critically important in helping to achieve that end.
Many conflicts, if not all conflicts, arise because of fundamental misunderstandings: misunderstandings of each other’s worlds and failing to relate to each other on a deeper level. Conflicts are the result of fears:
-Fears of ceasing to exist
-Fears of change
-Fears of that which is different
-Fears of that which we do not know or cannot not understand
People then attack or defend to protect themselves against these fears. I believe that our world would be very different if we could learn about, and understand one another at a deeper level. We would begin to see that we have common fears, common aspirations and that some of the things we fear are not always based on reality. Perceptions would change, and actions based on perceptions would change too. That’s why to me, learning a language is more that just being able to speak different words, but being able to understand the function of a language and yearning to discover what lies behind the vocabulary.
The Functions of Language
Beyond allowing people to communicate and exchange words, language has many different functions.
Language is a Lens: Language shows you life from different angles. Being able to speak a different language opens new doors and most importantly, allows one to enter a new world and to relate or connect with people in a different context. It allows you to participate with those people on their terms and to begin to experience and interpret life from their perspective. The words they use, the sounds they produce and the delivery of those words are very much based in the way they live life. The language becomes a reflection of the way people think, perceive and understand things. Comprehending that means you understand their perspectives much better. It is about moving beyond just vocabulary, grammar and words—it’s about exploring the foundations of people’s thinking, understanding contexts and realities, understanding behavior, understanding an interpretation of life and connecting language to the world around you.
To expand on this point, I’ll give an example based on observations that I have made in my life. I have noticed that in some cultures, strong formalities in the way people speak often are a reflection of the formal nature of that culture. And it’s easy to notice this, even if you don’t speak more than one language. Let’s take, for example, English. Friends at a party and politicians in Parliament in the same country can both speak English, but the way they use the language represents two different worlds—one that is very formal, and another usually more casual. One aims for clarity in its definitions and sometimes a complexity that can also represent high levels of education and being very well informed; in another case, one can aim to be socially acceptable, fun-loving, humorous etc. The Parliamentarian can employ words that show strength and confidence; the partygoer can lean towards words that portray her/him as easy going and savvy.
The same principles apply across different languages. They often reflect many realities about a culture and the way people live. A culture that appreciates humor will reflect that in its language. A culture that appreciates poetry and complex ideas will reflect that in its language. A culture that has a high regard for nature will have well developed means to express thoughts, feelings and emotions about the environment. Entering these different cultures and really understanding them therefore can be most effectively done by understand the languages that represent these cultures. That’s why the greatest visa you can have is that of learning a whole new language.
Language represents a logic and approach to life: Another interesting thing about understanding the functions of language is to analyze differences from one language to another. Differences in, for example, form (how the words and grammar are arranged and put together to have meaning), and differences in words (certain words exist in some languages and not in others) and so on. Take for example the difference between say, English and Spanish—two languages that have a relationship in some of their roots. Their form and structure are often very different. In English you say “The Green House” and in Spanish you would say “La Casa Verde.” Both sentences have the same meaning, but what fascinates me is the difference in the form, and the wider questions this poses. If you were to translate “La Casa Verde” directly to English, it would read “the house green,” effectively making little sense and changing the logic and emphasis of the sentence.
This small difference is central to the nature/form of both languages and leads me to wonder if it affects the way people think, reason, relate, express and interpret things. Does it mean that people who think of the object first and how it’s described second (as in, “the house” comes first (la casa) and then “green” (verde) comes as an after thought) inherently end up perceiving the world differently? What do these differences mean? I don’t think they make anyone or any language or culture inferior or superior, but I do think they represent interesting differences and at a deeper level and hold important lessons about other people, their cultures and their experience of life. It would be very interesting to spend time looking at some of the questions that these differences point out and try to figure out if understanding them can help us in better understanding each other.
Language is a currency: I metaphorically like to describe language as a currency that enables one to participate in a broad exchange. Using words as the means of exchange and the ‘legal tender’, you have a means of exchange. Words represent ideas, feelings, emotions, objects etc. and thus vocabulary is a very interesting part of a language. When a language has a representation of an emotion that other cultures don’t have, what does this mean? Can we ever relate to what the native speaker of that language is feeling even if we do not have a way of verbally expressing the same sentiment?
Take Portuguese speakers from Brazil for example. They have the word “saudade” which has a wide range of meanings, but often is used to describe the emotion of missing someone with a profound intensity. But if you approached a Brazilian and attempted to say that “saudade” is missing someone intensely, they would tell you that that’s a close definition, but not quite accurate. To date, I have not met anyone, anywhere in the world who has been able to adequately translate the meaning of “saudade”! The word does not exist in many other languages. Does that mean that we that are not native speakers of Brazilian Portuguese can never feel “saudade”? Perhaps we have felt it too… but how do we know, if we cannot express it the same way and have no way to compare what we’re feeling through a conversation?
Evolution of languages
Languages will always evolve and change: some will die, and new ones will emerge. Hybrids such as “Spanglish” [the merger of English and Spanish common amongst Latino immigrant communities in the United States] continue to demonstrate this in very interesting ways. Whilst acknowledging this, I feel that it is also fundamentally important to make efforts to preserve and to protect the languages that we have at the moment primarily as a learning resource and a measure of humanity’s progress. There’s a famous proverb that says, “If you don’t know where you’re coming from, you don’t know where you are going.” Preserving languages will allow us, and future generations to understand the bigger picture of life in a very important way.
Preserving Languages and Highlighting Their Importance
As languages evolve and are modified by many forces of change in the world today, how to we go about protecting them? What are practical steps that we can take to preserve languages to and to ensure that people can absorb the richness of their own languages and cultures whilst embracing and learning new/foreign ones out of personal interest or economic necessity? A few suggestions I’d like to put forward include:
1. Building Community Libraries and Language Centers dedicated to promoting literature, arts and studies in local languages and extending the understanding of how local languages fit within a global picture.
2. Creating Internet and digital archives of languages (such as www.takingitglobal.org/themes/languages) that focus attention on the importance of languages and in some effectives ways, capture the differences in languages and other important aspects.
3. Using the media to promote different languages and to raise awareness on the issue of languages and their role in the world.
4. Strengthening the arts and cultural expression, which are strong vehicles for carrying messages and meaning.
5. Celebrating diversity! This can be done in many ways, and increases the appreciation for those things that are different to that which we are. Celebrations of diversity help to reduce and eliminate the fears I referred to earlier and replace xenophobia and ignorance with being informed and enlightened.
The above-suggested actions cannot really take place if there are not any significant investments in culture and languages. These investments can be in the form of finances and capital, as well as political will, which hopefully translates into progressive action and effective policies. As with any good investment, it may take time to see the results, but the returns on an investment in languages and culture will be well worth it. They will include:
• Improved intercultural understanding. If language is at the core of who we are, as I have argued earlier, then we can understand each other in a deeper and more profound manner by understanding each other’s languages;
• Embracing diversity and shifting away from being driven by a fear of differences;
• Greater interests in learning and knowledge;
• A stronger sense of identity amongst people whose pride is strengthened by seeing their culture and language celebrated;
• People participating in the world more meaningfully because they look through it with different lenses and have access to the tools that foster participation.
• Lessened fears of loss, or being erased from existence because of investments in preserving and protecting the essence of ethnicity and identify.
The world has realized and understood the need to protect and preserve the environment. Numerous conferences have been held on the environment, which has led to a sustainable development movement and mainstreamed ideas about making our planet physically healthier. A United Nations agency [UNEP] exists that has been charged with promoting environmental well-being and similarly, governments around the world have created departments to further the same goals. Business and civil society have also responded positively and proactively to this cause. A Global Environment Facility is in place to ensure that strategic investments at the global level are directed towards environmental protection and stewardship. In the same way, similar investments need to be made towards languages and culture. A Global Cultural Facility would not be such a bad idea. Perhaps it is about time we compliment improvements to the Earth’s physical well-being by taking care of its emotional and social state too! J
Globalization and Language
Some people argue of the inevitability of the emergence of a global language as a result of globalization. Perhaps this means of the world’s current major languages becomes a global language. English is well positioned to be that. Perhaps that may be a good thing. According to the National Geographic Society, Africa speaks well over 1600 languages. The continent already has many challenges as a result of all of these differences. For some people, the solution has been to eliminate smaller languages to create unifying ones. The same formula may be employed at the global level, although I must say I oppose it. This is where language becomes political, and often politics in its present form creates messes. I think that by investing in a deeper understanding of different languages you can achieve social harmony and still streamline economic interaction. You gain more and lose less.
The Role of TakingITGlobal in the International Language Dialogue
TakingITGlobal brings together more than 45 000 youth and adults from over 200 countries worldwide. All of these people speak thousands of languages and currently many communicate through English. No one can doubt the richness of the TakingITGlobal community. Imagine just how much more vibrant the community can become when the potential to interact and communicate expands and grows? TIG is launching a Multilingual Platform this month in an effort to bridge the communication gap created by language barriers. This is a positive development for the entire TIG community, as it will give more people tools to participate in the community and to navigate life at TakingITGlobal.org
The Multilingual Platform at TakingITGlobal.org will redefine the global-local interaction fostered by the online tools TIG provides. It will also enable people who have not had the ability to connect or to understand each other’s points of views and expressions to do so with much ease. Local connections will translate to global connections. An example of how the Multilingual Platform will add value to already existing resources on TIG is through the Global Gallery. I feel that this space can now transform from being just an online gallery, but rather a point of intersection. Members can navigate the site in a language familiar to them and discover each other’s work. They can create an exchange around what they are expressing through their art. They can write in languages they are most comfortable in (currently just English, Spanish and French) and post comments, responses and critiques of work in the Gallery and opening up the interaction around art work and involving people who may previously have been held back by a language barrier.
As TIG’s Multilingual Platform develops, it will continue to demonstrate the value in making investments in language and, true to the vision of TakingITGlobal, it will inspire youth to inform (and be informed), inspired (and be inspired) and to involve (and be involved) in global and local processes and actions using languages, tools and a currency that they are most comfortable with and that they understand in a deeper way. That, to me, is empowerment!
Conclusion
As we continue to ponder, debate and discuss language and their role within the TakingITGlobal Community and in our world, I hope that we all develop a passion to learn new languages, to learn about them and the people that speak them and to use languages as a vehicle and tool for exploring other realities in our world. Languages present us a unique opportunity to continue to learn about ourselves and create opportunities to redefine our world by through understanding it from different perspectives. My hope is that this article has helped to expand our understanding of how precious and valuable languages are; that they are absolutely worth protecting, preserving and developing.
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