My Personal Attachment to Language
“Language exerts hidden power, like the moon on the tides.” — Rita Mae Brown
There are so many minuscule everyday things that people often take for granted. There’s the oxygen we breathe, the ocean plankton that provides that oxygen, the ozone layer, and the topic of this article, language. Think of all the times you had a conversation with someone that shaped your worldview drastically. There are days you think that so-and-so is not something you believe in but one person gives a deliberate breakdown as to why they believe the opposite. You get so immersed in what they are saying that you are convinced to think the same way as them. At the very least, it urges you to critically think.
Personally, language has always been a ‘little thing’ that I’m always grateful for. Not a day goes by when I don’t think that being able to speak and understand other people is so fascinating. This often occurs when I play Counter Strike 2 and hear people from other parts of Asia speak languages I don’t understand. I get the feeling of being left out until I hear someone speak English or Filipino. And this doesn’t only happen during online games, this can happen anywhere. Let’s say you’re studying Spanish and you find out that one of your friends is also studying Spanish, you get this sense of excitement that you’re doing it with another person. The point is that language brings people together.
Moreover, language is not limited to communication with other people. It is also important to recognize the existence of internal language, which is the way you communicate with yourself. Asseily (2012) suggests that authoritarian language — language that demands action which could lead to being demotivated — may damage our creativity in different ways. This emphasizes the importance of the way we talk to ourselves. Picture all those moments when you had a friend ask you for advice and how you were somehow able to give the most profound and useful advice to them. How painful is it that when you are alone with yourself, you’re barely able to give yourself words of motivation? Try to shift the way you talk to yourselves with these examples:
“Try to be a good girl and finish your work.” -> “Do your best to finish the work.”
“You should have done better than this.” → “I believe you can do your best.”
“I must look as nice as the others.” → “I must look as nice as I am.”
Asseily (2012)
Learning to be gentle with yourself by changing the tone of the language that you speak is an important asset. As one of my saying goes, “At the grand finale of our lives, there is only one person who has seen our beginning until the end, ourselves.”
And the most important thing that wouldn’t exist without language is literature. As you all know now, I love reading and writing. Books are my therapy, poetry saved my life, and shows give me endless entertainment. A whole article could be dedicated to how much I love literature but the focus of this one is on languages. Because of language, I never ran out of ways to express myself concerning my emotions, wants, and needs. I’m able to write now because of language and I will forever be grateful for that. The world of language transcends the physical realm and makes the world go round.
In conclusion, I wanted to show appreciation for language and how my life wouldn’t be this colorful without my realization of its beauty. Albeit a bit of an overreaction, I stand by every word that I said in this article. We experience and use language every day and we rarely think to appreciate how powerful it truly is. My appreciation for its existence is deeply personal as I’m someone who is considered a wordsmith. I have a long way to go in my life and if there’s anything that I’m sure of, it’s that language will have my back every step of the way.
References:
Asseily, A. (2012). The Power of Language — How Small Shifts in Language Create Big Shifts in Relationships and Behaviour. Rethinking Education for Social Cohesion, 220–231. doi:10.1057/9781137283900_15
