Language is an important element of communication which in turn allows people to interact and exchange their culture, their experiences, their knowledge and their art…Communication is behind democracy, human rights, peaceful and respectful relationship and progression. Language is also a way to express our inner secret thoughts.
It was in Mesopotamia, in 3300 BEC, that the 1st written symbolic language, the pictogram (image), was created by Sumerians, who developed it in 3000 BEC, to become the cuneiform graphic. Although the verbal language existed already, the development of the written language arises from the need of this population to leave their communications with the neighboring people as well as their culture, their creativity, their expansion and their history to the future generations. Texts were written in different fields like administrative, religious and even literature, like the 1st famous literary work, the epic of Gilgamesh.
Later on, in 1000 BEC, the Phoenicians invented their own alphabet, the Phoenician alphabet, which is behind almost all the alphabet of the world. It’s from the port of Tyr (Sour) in my country Lebanon (Phoenicia before), that was diffused the Phoenician alphabet to the world. This was behind the development of extended communications between countries, civilizations, leading to culture and commerce exchanges. But from there, languages were diversified and developed according to a number of factors like geographical, cultural, ethnical…a lot of them disappeared later on.
Language can be oral or verbal (voice), written (symbols), visual (images, art…) and even perceptual like it is the case with the Braille (touch), eye and body languages. But, its goal is one: communication.
Language is an accumulation of words, images, sounds or gestural to share our expertise, our experience and to express our thoughts, feelings, ideas, plans, strategies and to develop our creativity. People from the same country or community use usually the same language. The language can also be common to an entire geographical area or to people with a same culture. So, language relies on the culture and the way of thinking of the people from the same community or country.
To practice, understand and interpret all kind of languages, human beings need to have healthy vision, audition and faculty of speech as well as a healthy brain.
Thus, talking and reading the same language is mandatory to let people connect with each others. It avoids misunderstanding and conflict situations behind the violence and even behind wars sometimes. It also allows people to share their own experiences in life or at work, in order to let others take advantage of them and to avoid doing the same mistakes. Language makes history of a person, a family… or an entire civilization which will be communicated to the future generations.
Unfortunately, with the language diversity, we all don’t talk the same language. If some are more worldwide spread like Spanish and English, others like Chinese, Indian and Arabic are less popular around the globe, even with the actual globalization due to the development of technologies leading to better communication.
Thus, the barriers for a visitor, student or a job seeker to not talk the language of the hosted country could be multiple and at different levels, from the basic living needs till understanding the culture, the reason for a holiday’s day, the meaning of a celebration or even appreciating an artwork like a piece of theatre, beside the difficulties encountered at work and college or university. Language is also a barrier to have relationship; making friends will take more times, leading to loneliness and anxiety. It’s a barrier to integration into the society which could be a great disability.
Language is also a way to express and share our inner thoughts, our dreams, our creativity; a poem, a bestseller book, a novel, an artwork or a new invention could be the result of such secret thoughts. But this kind of expression is not comprehensible by all people, even if they understand the language. It’s the language of art with indirect meanings expressing our inner minds.
Diversity of culture and languages is a good thing for the human curiosity and development, even in this globalization era. The rapid development of communications’ technologies is putting people together from all over the world, to share their expertise, make business and relationships…This is the universal language of the future. Unfortunately, the direct human touch will be lost over time.
