Words can change our world: Why language learning deepens connection
“The real secret of magic is that the world is made of words, and that if you know the words that the world is made of you can make of it whatever you wish” — Terence Mckenna
Right now, you are reading squiggles on a screen. They have no inherent meaning at all, but we see them as letters, as words, as language. Just pause and consider how amazing that really is.
For our species, language is the key meaning making element for our experience of the world. Our so-called “cognitive revolution” is what made us Homo Sapiens special from all the other human species. It is the key factor as to why we now dominate the planet (for better and worse).
Words enable us to connect, communicate and compel. To share our unique subjective experience of our world through language.
The stories we tell both others and ourselves have a profound impact on this experience of life. As Ursula K. Le Guin states beautifully in The Magic of Real Human Conversation.
“Words are events, they do things, change things. They transform both speaker and hearer; they feed energy back and forth and amplify it” — Ursula K. Le Guin
On Learning Languages
I was lucky to deliver a TEDx talk on my love for words, the transformative journey I’ve had with languages and why we all should be learning other languages alongside our own.
In my talk, I blend my own journey to become a polyglot (lit: poly = many, glot = tongues) with some of the powerful impacts of language learning.
At 19 years old, I spoke only one language: English. Now, I’m lucky to speak multiple (En fait, je suis en train d’apprendre ma 6e, qui est bien sûr le français).
Based on this journey, I consider myself a global citizen and am lucky to travel the word to learn and share insights about the future of learning and work, language and leadership, innovation and wellbeing.
In the TED talk, I also share three insights about language learning.
- Language learning is good for the brain.
- Language learning makes us a better learners by developing our social risk-taking capacity and meta-learning capability.
- Learning languages enables better perspective-taking, especially across the cultures of the languages you speak.
More broadly of course, our command of language also influences our command of the environments around us — it’s the key mechanism for interacting with people and inspiring change in attitudes, behaviours and beliefs. We use it in our roles as friends, partners, parents, educators, and leaders. We don’t notice it, just as we don’t notice the air around us. But it’s there all the same, and without language, we wouldn’t be able to breathe.
On Language Development
To know why language is so central in our experience of the world, it’s fascinating to take a brief look into our human past and discover where this all began.
There is something particularly human about using tools; the first and most important tool being language.
— Isaac Asimov
In the excellent book Sapiens, Yuval Noah Harari notes the supreme development that language was for our species. For the first time, it enabled us to share ideas more effectively beyond generations. This cognitive revolution likely occurred somewhere between 70,000 — 100,000 years ago, from which Homo Sapiens began to dominate the other species of humans (including direct relatives like Homo Habilis and Homo Erectus but also cousins and distant relatives like Homo Neanderthalensis and Homo Denisova).
To demonstrate why acquisition of language was so transformative for us, Tim Urban graphed the distinct difference of knowledge growth before and after the development of language.
Clearly our species began to develop knowledge rapidly in ways not formerly possible, with a much sharper tribal knowledge growth trajectory with the amount of knowledge passed down from one generation to the next much greater.
The invention of the written word came much later, but enabled a similar acceleration of knowledge transfer, similar to what the internet has enabled in the modern era.
Neuroscience suggests that the words we both use and hear change our brains constantly. As children, we are hardwired with a genetic instinct and pre-disposition to acquire language, as made famous by the theory of Universal Grammar from the brilliant Noam Chomsky. In fact, in every interaction we have and every idea we discover through conversation and direct experience, change occurs at a neurological level. After all, “neurones that fire together, wire together.” (Hebbian theory).
In the modern world, words are thrown around constantly, amplified by social media, and they can humanise and dehumanise. Kipling accurately noted, our words are so powerful, they are almost like a drug. Possibly the most powerful drug used by humankind.
So in our ever more volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA) world, the way we use our words with others matters more than ever. It’s one of the most powerful tools we have at our disposal and we have a responsibility to use it to bring about positive change.
On Self-talk
Finally, all of us have an internal monologue, a continuous conversation we are having with ourselves. We sometimes might feel helpless, but we can influence that narrative.
Question: How positive and kind is your self-talk?
Often, we are our own harshest critic, the imposter syndrome is one such manifestation. Doubting our abilities, our image, our value.
The antidote: to use the words we’d say to a good friend and say these words to ourselves. We all need to practice self-compassion and positive self-talk.
Watch your thoughts, they become words. Watch your words, they become actions. Watch your actions, they become habits. Watch your habits, they become your character. Watch your character, it becomes your destiny.
In Summary
Learning a language is not just another useful skill for travel, or to stand out from a crowd in getting a job. It changes us for the better at a fundamental level — the level of identity and being.
Our ability to empathise and take perspective is activated when we learn languages. There are few things more important in today’s complex world as converging exponential technologies changing our workplaces, our schools, our communication practices.
With the beautiful diversity of our world, we ought to all engage authentically with the people and ideas around us. To develop and value perspective and insight. We can run from our diversity, or we can embrace it, moving beyond tolerance to a sense of value.
We need this to unleash our key human abilities to connect with each other at the deepest level possible.
And in learning another language you will find one of most challenging and rewarding paths to help you communication, connect and compel.
Buena suerte, Καλή τύχη, wiru ngarama, bonne chance and good luck.
Key Messages
- Strive to master the power of language, it’s the key pillar of leadership and a driver for collective intelligence.
- Learn another language and increase your ability to empathise and take perspective, to appreciate diversity in culture and ideas.
- Practice self-compassion and positive interrogative self-talk.
- Get started today. I use Busuu for my daily language learning, but nothing beats in-country full-immersion, with a clear learning intention and formalised study.
- The question is, what language are you going to learn?
