Why Language is the Greatest Social Construction

So the other day I was doing my usual thing of training Freestyle Football (Google it haha) in a studio down at the gym. The cleaner comes in and tells me he needs to clean the studio and that I should move into the other available one.

Not a problem. He asked me this in very broken rusty, English. I asked him where he was from and he said Argentina.

“Ah hablas Español?” I said.

And then boom. We are away. Once I said that sentence I thought he would never stop talking. But I wasn’t going to stop him. He actually seemed really happy, flamboyant in his gestures even. And this makes a change from the usual sight of him I see cleaning the gym facilities where I train.

Now just for the record, I’m not saying we had an amazing fluent conversation in the aftermath of this. But it forced me to at least try and use my “fairly decent” to “better than the average Brit’s” Spanish. I had studied it for 5 years in school but have had absolutely next to no opportunity to use it with anyone outside of school since I left. But I tried and that’s the main thing.

Here’s the part that shocked me so. Turns out his son is also a football freestyler like myself, and is ranked 10th in Argentina or something. Small world eh. This was so random but completely made my day. I now am obligated to say hello to the cleaner every time I see him now and attempt to brush up on the Spanish while he just brushes up.

Given how quiet he is, I find it highly unlikely that I would have learnt all I’ve learnt about him had I not attempted to use that limited Spanish.

That incident made me go home and really think to myself how amazing language is. It’s rather deep when you think about it. Well without it, how would we function? Sign language? Do you think if we didn’t develop a language throughout time then we would have died out? Or was it always an inevitability?

All these questions stemming from a 10 minute chat with an Argentinian cleaner is a bit bizarre but I’m going to roll with it anyway.

Being English, I honestly feel embarrassed by this country’s overall lack of willingness to learn other languages. I’m saying this in comparison to other countries who almost effortlessly it seems, can pick up English well where as we only attempt to learn “two beers please” in their respective language.

Only to a small extent does it seem to be a core lesson in schools. I guess you could almost argue it’s like maths: a kid could say “When the hell am I going to use that in later life?” and it be valid about both German and also the Quadratic Formula.

Some people may never want or get the chance to use it outside of school but I cannot help feel it really is an invaluable skill to have.

At the end of the day, language is a fundamental part of human nature. Heck, our brains have even evolved around the thing (Shoutout to Broca’s and Wernike’s areas of the brain, keep doing your thing). Yes we can convey things like emotion through gestures and facial expressions, but to elaborate on ideas and concepts can only realistically be achieved through the majesty of language.

That is why I feel language is the greatest social construct we, as humans, ever made. Enabling humans to become just a little bit more alike and actually connect with one another through some means.

I recently also met someone who also speaks very good Spanish (Not the Argentinian cleaner from the earlier story) , I see this as a great opportunity to rekindle that love for something that I no longer had a chance to really excel in. And I encourage others to do the same.

You’d be surprised when knowing another language could come in handy, or be even more vital than ‘handy’.

I know some (particularly those who didn’t engage in modern languages in school) will argue:

“wouldn’t it just be better if everyone spoke the same language?”

And to be honest, I can’t really see why that would be an awful idea or concept. But it is far from a reality. So until then you may as well delve into it to the best of your ability. If you have any spare time and want to challenge yourself in doing something new like I’m doing in writing these articles here, I recommend learning another language. It is there to be appreciated and used not frowned upon.