Language

(My 4-year-old students when I taught English in Kindergarten about 1 year ago.)


Most of us have known the story of Tower of Babel in Bible even you might not a Christian (including me). I like this story pretty much. We can’t communicate in the same language, so we can never work together; I mean really working together without suspicion, jealousy, or selfishness. Even though talking in the same language, it is also hard to tell if we know what people exactly mean.



According to Lao-tse, one of the greatest philosopher in ancient China and also my favorite, he thought the definition of every single word for everyone is not always precisely the same. We might have very familiar perspective about, say, “aggressive”, but the meaning of this word for you and me will never be 100% the same. Thus, while talking, it is not always possible to totally understand each other, not mentioned if you really express what you want to share.

So, “Tao”, the only truth in the world, is unspeakable.

Interesting, isn’t it?

Therefore, I have a very interesting question, is communication really important, useful, and helpful since we all have different definitions about different words?

Of course, we still understand and are understood everyday by language. And it is also the main reason to make us, human beings, so unique on earth.

However, for some people, communication means the intention to know somebody related to them much more. That’s very good and I am sure they will do their best to understand each other. But for others, sometimes they just want to CHANGE people around them because they rarely listen to what other people say but talking, talking, and talking about themselves. They want people to do something they like and they want. That’s not what we call “communication”.

Also, our actions speak for themselves. A very good way to know a person more might be to observe the behaviors even if without a single word.

So, what do you think about language, especially the spoken one?