Why Knowing One Language Can Be Harmful
The advancement in science and technology has been exceptional in the past few centuries, featuring influential thinkers in both STEM fields and social science. While we deepen our understanding of the universe and ourselves every day, there still exists a vast amount of unknowns both outside and inside of ourselves. One such example is one of the oldest technology of humankind: language. It is obvious to view language as technology because it is a tool through which we communicate, but it possible to see language as something much more powerful or possibly harmful.
First, we shall think of language and thoughts as separate things. This claim can be proven easily by referring to the case of a baby. Babies start to recognize and learn a language as early as six months after its birth. In those six months, babies still think even in the absence of any language. This shows that language and thoughts are independent, at least in the early stage of development of a person. Then why do people rely so heavily on language, especially on their mother tongue, when thinking?
Picture a person’s imaginary thought-communication world. At the center, there is a circle which represents thoughts. Because humans are not telekinetic, we need a mean of communication if we were to communicate our thoughts. Then we can draw another circle which represents a language through which we draw a line from the central circle to the outside to represent communication. As we grow up, we take this route more and more often. The link between the central thought circle and the language circle becomes so strong that every time we think, we automatically take this path. This way, our thoughts are restricted to how the language describes the world.
The problem becomes even worse when such people (who have a strong link between their thoughts and their mother tongue) tries to learn a new language. Because of the strong connection between their central thoughts and their mother tongue, these people struggle to create a path which directly connects the central thoughts and the new language. They must take the long way of going to their mother tongue and translating to the second language. This kind of inconvenience not only consume time but also limit you from experiencing a new language fully. After all, the thoughts are still restricted to their mother tongue.
However, if people have been exposed to more than one languages since little, they are less likely to be limited by one specific language which makes their language learning process much easier than that of a monolingual. This trend is easily observed as it is my experience that multi-lingual speakers tend to learn new languages better than others. Another interesting observation I made in the interaction with multi-lingual speakers (I myself falls under this category as well) is that they don’t necessarily think in a language which indicates the independence of their thoughts from languages. This seems to prove my explanation above.
Languages are both useful and fascinating, however, it is important to realize the potential damage it can do to our learning ability and the restriction it can impose on our thought process. This is one of the reasons I think being a multi-lingual from a young age is much more beneficial than many recognize.
