Multi-lingual Relations

I’ve been thinking a bit lately about the new relationships I’ve made over here, and perhaps learning to look outside my country’s borders is a very appropriate topic to consider as we approach another anniversary of 9/11 if we hope to learn anything and move forward to a brighter future.

This might sound silly, but I’ve discovered I really enjoy forming relationships with people who speak other languages (especially if they have some working knowledge of English). I find it helps me grow so much. People who are raised speaking another language seem to have some fundamentally different way of conceptualizing even the most basic ideas based upon how their language presents and formulates these ideas. This linguistic phenomenon seems to run even deeper than, though it's also intertwined with, culture. I, as an American and English-speaker, am often unaware of basic attitudes I take towards certain practices and ideas. But someone else from another language and culture can open my eyes to these things. In the end, language is a human-made and thus flawed method by which we can try to express emotions and experiences which do not innately have words to describe them. Though language barriers create challenges in communication, they also open our eyes to the artificiality of the assignment of certain words to experiences. When talking with another English-speaker, I can complacently take words at face value and may not seek to understand as fully what is truly captured in each statement. However, communication with a person who normally uses another language opens doors to a deeper and potentially even more fulfilling form of communication.

Thanks, Designed to a T !