By John Paraskevopoulos
Senior, Santa Teresa High
Some things are magical. I think language is one of them. That a thought that has never been thought before; a thought of entirely unique origin, a thought originating from the cells of a person’s brain, composed of molecules which will never again be arranged together in such an order and formation; a thought generated in the consciousness of someone with a unique genetic code and personal history; even if the idea has been had before, that that thought, a unique occurrence in all of time and space, can be transplanted directly via words into my own consciousness, is nothing short of spectacular.
Language creates a unity of consciousness between people. It allows direct communication of thoughts and feelings between two otherwise isolated minds. Certain emotions can be communicated otherwise, perhaps by body language, a twinkle of the eyes, but those are approximations. Language allows for precise transcription. Language allows one person to say to another, or millions, or billions, if in the format of published material, “This is what exactly passed through my mind. Here it is in its original format so you may understand precisely what I was thinking.”
This unity of minds creates unity of people, and peace. Misunderstanding creates conflict. We see that in the world every day. Language allows for understanding, and subsequent peace. Knowledge is power, but the majority of our knowledge cannot be understood or communicated without language.
Naturally, then, exact control of some language would be desirable, in order to perceive the thoughts of others and to verbalize one’s own. Here, however, we run into a problem. I meet high-school students who complain of having to take four years of English. This is a result of a failure of our educational institutions to teach on a wide scale, or a massive cultural failure to emphasize one of the most influential aspects of living. Most likely it is some combination of both.
Whatever the cause, I worry for the future of some students. I do not mean the AP Literature students who misplace some commas, or all of those people who do not know when to use “that” instead of “which,” but the students who see no value in their English class, or who cannot find any pronoun other than the “n-word” or “bro” (pronounced “brah”). I worry not for selfish reasons, but because I think a person lacking the ability to verbalize his or her thoughts will have a much more difficult time understanding who he or she is and what he or she feels, which could lead to conflict, intrapersonal or interpersonal.
The fact of the matter is that without a full capacity for language, I doubt there can be a full capacity for thought. Emotions will still be present, as strong as in anyone else; but will that person be able to verbalize and communicate those emotions? Will he or she be able to understand them? English has an incredibly rich vocabulary, perhaps the largest of the living languages. If you do not know the word for what you are feeling, what becomes of the feeling? To quote the AP Psychology book currently used on campus, “The Hopi [Native American tribe] have no past tense for their verbs. Therefore… a Hopi could not so readily think about the past. To expand language is to expand the ability to think. Indeed, it is very difficult to think about or conceptualize certain abstract ideas (commitment, freedom, or rhyming) without language! And what is true for preschoolers is true for everyone: It pays to increase your word power” (Myers, David. Psychology. New York, NY: Worth Publishers, 2007. 418-419).
The book goes on to discuss how certain other tribes that speak a language with numerous words for differing shades of a specific color better recall the differences between slides of the same color, each with a slightly distinct hue, than native English speakers shown the same slides, and how members of another tribe with only words for “1” and “2” (anything more is “many”) have more difficulty mimicking an instructor place seven nuts in a pile.
The good news is that we’re all young. Some of the students on campus could be looking to another seven decades on Earth; and if the Psychology book is still trustable, research has shown that memory for things such as vocabulary accumulates for all of a person’s life and does not start declining until her or she is past almost seventy years old. Additionally, if a person speaks a language, that means the lingual portion of the brain has developed, meaning the capacity exists.
So get started now! Read your textbooks. Read anything you can. Why four years of English class? Language is so closely tied to our ability to think and learn, neglecting it would be unforgivable. Language is a tool that is available to serve you any given moment of your life; and ultimately, greater control of language yields greater control of self.
P.S. Thank you John for allowing me to publish this as a guest post. I hope your post will light a fire under your classmates. And encourage them to read more and write more. Readers, I find the more I read, the more I am able to write. It is no coincidence that almost every single post of mine references at least one book, if not more. For an example of how a book can lead you down an enchanted path, check out my post 'The Acrobat And The Commissions Analyst' . It was inspired by reading a single line in the book Setting Your Heart on Fire by Raphael Cushnir. Also, I hope you will also follow my lead and write about your life experiences. There is writing material in each and every experience. Even experiences in which you make an utter fool of yourself. My post How I Lost A Thousand Dollars on Donuts provides an example.
P.S.2 - Below are some books which were referred to in this post or are pertinent to the topic.
Senior, Santa Teresa High
Some things are magical. I think language is one of them. That a thought that has never been thought before; a thought of entirely unique origin, a thought originating from the cells of a person’s brain, composed of molecules which will never again be arranged together in such an order and formation; a thought generated in the consciousness of someone with a unique genetic code and personal history; even if the idea has been had before, that that thought, a unique occurrence in all of time and space, can be transplanted directly via words into my own consciousness, is nothing short of spectacular.
Language creates a unity of consciousness between people. It allows direct communication of thoughts and feelings between two otherwise isolated minds. Certain emotions can be communicated otherwise, perhaps by body language, a twinkle of the eyes, but those are approximations. Language allows for precise transcription. Language allows one person to say to another, or millions, or billions, if in the format of published material, “This is what exactly passed through my mind. Here it is in its original format so you may understand precisely what I was thinking.”
This unity of minds creates unity of people, and peace. Misunderstanding creates conflict. We see that in the world every day. Language allows for understanding, and subsequent peace. Knowledge is power, but the majority of our knowledge cannot be understood or communicated without language.
Naturally, then, exact control of some language would be desirable, in order to perceive the thoughts of others and to verbalize one’s own. Here, however, we run into a problem. I meet high-school students who complain of having to take four years of English. This is a result of a failure of our educational institutions to teach on a wide scale, or a massive cultural failure to emphasize one of the most influential aspects of living. Most likely it is some combination of both.
Whatever the cause, I worry for the future of some students. I do not mean the AP Literature students who misplace some commas, or all of those people who do not know when to use “that” instead of “which,” but the students who see no value in their English class, or who cannot find any pronoun other than the “n-word” or “bro” (pronounced “brah”). I worry not for selfish reasons, but because I think a person lacking the ability to verbalize his or her thoughts will have a much more difficult time understanding who he or she is and what he or she feels, which could lead to conflict, intrapersonal or interpersonal.
The fact of the matter is that without a full capacity for language, I doubt there can be a full capacity for thought. Emotions will still be present, as strong as in anyone else; but will that person be able to verbalize and communicate those emotions? Will he or she be able to understand them? English has an incredibly rich vocabulary, perhaps the largest of the living languages. If you do not know the word for what you are feeling, what becomes of the feeling? To quote the AP Psychology book currently used on campus, “The Hopi [Native American tribe] have no past tense for their verbs. Therefore… a Hopi could not so readily think about the past. To expand language is to expand the ability to think. Indeed, it is very difficult to think about or conceptualize certain abstract ideas (commitment, freedom, or rhyming) without language! And what is true for preschoolers is true for everyone: It pays to increase your word power” (Myers, David. Psychology. New York, NY: Worth Publishers, 2007. 418-419).
The book goes on to discuss how certain other tribes that speak a language with numerous words for differing shades of a specific color better recall the differences between slides of the same color, each with a slightly distinct hue, than native English speakers shown the same slides, and how members of another tribe with only words for “1” and “2” (anything more is “many”) have more difficulty mimicking an instructor place seven nuts in a pile.
The good news is that we’re all young. Some of the students on campus could be looking to another seven decades on Earth; and if the Psychology book is still trustable, research has shown that memory for things such as vocabulary accumulates for all of a person’s life and does not start declining until her or she is past almost seventy years old. Additionally, if a person speaks a language, that means the lingual portion of the brain has developed, meaning the capacity exists.
So get started now! Read your textbooks. Read anything you can. Why four years of English class? Language is so closely tied to our ability to think and learn, neglecting it would be unforgivable. Language is a tool that is available to serve you any given moment of your life; and ultimately, greater control of language yields greater control of self.
P.S. Thank you John for allowing me to publish this as a guest post. I hope your post will light a fire under your classmates. And encourage them to read more and write more. Readers, I find the more I read, the more I am able to write. It is no coincidence that almost every single post of mine references at least one book, if not more. For an example of how a book can lead you down an enchanted path, check out my post 'The Acrobat And The Commissions Analyst' . It was inspired by reading a single line in the book Setting Your Heart on Fire by Raphael Cushnir. Also, I hope you will also follow my lead and write about your life experiences. There is writing material in each and every experience. Even experiences in which you make an utter fool of yourself. My post How I Lost A Thousand Dollars on Donuts provides an example.
P.S.2 - Below are some books which were referred to in this post or are pertinent to the topic.
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