Language

Am I the only one who, during an extended stay in a foreign country, went through phases of first really hating and second really appreciating language and then back and forth and back and forth again?

In the beginning I was very mad at language. My dear friend Google informs me that there are about 6,500 languages spoken around the world today. Most of us can only speak fluently in one. 1 out of 6,500. I spent a large portion of my time in Mexico being really angry at the 6,499 languages that had the power to build a wall between me and the millions of people in the world who speak them. I was really mad because I realized that there are millions of people in the world that I will never have the privilege of knowing because they weren't raised speaking English and I wasn't raised speaking French or Japanese or Russian or Czech or Mandarin or Nahautl or German and as a result we have no form of communication. And that also makes me incredibly sad. And sure, I speak a decent amount of Spanish and did have the privilege of getting to know dear friends from Mexico and Spain in the past month but there were too many moments when I realized that it would take forever for me to get to a level with my Spanish that would allow me to be as close to them as I am with my closest friends back home. But there were also moments when all I could do was marvel at language's ability to connect us in ways that would have been absolutely impossible without it. It was amazing to put to use all my years of studying Spanish and actually see their tangibility in the real world. And even as weird as it was to speak English when I came back, I was so grateful for the ease in which I could communicate again. Almost without thought, I could say whatever I wanted to say and I could understand absolutely everything!

So forgetting my brief hatred for language, I've found that it's really an asset we never think about or appreciate. Humans can connect on so many levels and for that we forget to be grateful. We have the power to understand so many people even if you don't speak one of the most popular of the 6,500. And we have the power to learn more languages in order to shrink the wall looming at 6,499. So have a conversation with the person in front of you in line at the coffee shop and sitting next to you on the train and learn more languages and ask your family members more questions and tell your friends everything. Because we can :)