The Monolingual - Languages and What We Lose Without Them

Most people will tell you that languages open doors and bring opportunities on any job market... and then again most people know that... whether they do or don't speak other languages...

What most people won't tell you is not speaking other languages you may lose much more than carre opportunities...

Besides the fact that all intellectual exercises and practice is sure to ward off Alzheimer's disease, there is much more to languages than this...

Speaking English will open the doors of communication globally... yet not always nor everywhere at the same time... and again let's remember that speaking English for non natives is no guarantee of good English and the English channel doesn't necessarily convey everything... a notion journalist and reporters should consider when they are sent abroad... instead of believe everything they are told by the locals... which may be a far cry from the actual facts and truth...

Languages are also culture in context.... people speaking their own language will act differently and the semaphores will tally with what they are expressing... which doesn't apply most times when speaking another languages... until the speaking has collected years of practice in both the language and culture...

To me languages are also music and poetry in motion... the words and phrases bring me other pictures of common things and places... another look on life... viewed from a different angle... a reflection on what I do and say... and how... reading literature in the original language uncovering unsuspected puns or poetry the translation doesn't convey in the other languages... the same works for songs... revealing a poetry in the lyrics that is not found in the music...

Speaking different languages has also taught me that friends and partners come with languages...

Many years ago when I arrived in France, most people told me 'Ah ! You speak Italian...' almost as though I had told them I was VD ridden... the disdainful look on their faces spoke wolves as to whoever would people want to speak Italian in the first place...

As a matter of fact speaking Italian has earned me most of my oldest friends and a few contracts where Italian or Italy were concerned and nobody else could deal with them...

A Jewish family friend of mine once told me their children would never learn German... but there are also Jews in German speaking countries... and their children might one day fall in love with one of them and need to speak German in term...

There is that French film about a French guy who is crazy about Chinese language and culture... who ends up learning Mandarin Chinese and eventually goes to live happily ever after in Communist China...

My advice here is never turn down a language opportunity.... Believe it or not but believe me I have learnt a few languages in a few countries I would not necessarily have chosen to go and live... and yet I'm happy I learnt all of them... and I had to live it all again I would...

Jesse CRAIGNOU

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