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Language and Psychology
Jun. 18th, 2010 01:24 pmI was thinking this morning about how I really love studying languages. Old, new, dead, living--I don't care. If I could get paid to study languages, I would do so quite happily; I love finding the connection points between languages and reading about how they have changed to become what they are today. I love that moment when reading a word in a foreign language becomes natural, where you don't have to think, "Oh, that means [x] in English."
My thoughts moved from there to people. Obviously, studying a living language and being able to use it with people is the ideal. I do love learning for learning's sake, but there is a specialness about learning something that will allow you to interact with someone in a new way that captures my heart. Learning is best when it's used, and how lovely is it to be able to speak to someone in their own language?
Of course, when you talk about speaking their language, you're also talking about understanding a little culture, a little history, knowing more than just vocabulary and grammar. And that, I think, is where these two loves of mine intersect at their point of commonality. See, to really know a language, you have to be able to comprehend, able to read, able to speak. You have to be skilled to some extent in it, and you also have to know some background--where is this language coming from? What are its eccentricities? How is it different from my native language?
And people are the same way. To be able to really know a person, you have to have some relationship skills. You have to be able to read people a little. You have to have some idea of their history, of how they speak and why, and how they are different from you. If you act as though all people are just like you, it will be no more useful to you than if you acted as though English were the common tongue of all humanity.
My thoughts moved from there to people. Obviously, studying a living language and being able to use it with people is the ideal. I do love learning for learning's sake, but there is a specialness about learning something that will allow you to interact with someone in a new way that captures my heart. Learning is best when it's used, and how lovely is it to be able to speak to someone in their own language?
Of course, when you talk about speaking their language, you're also talking about understanding a little culture, a little history, knowing more than just vocabulary and grammar. And that, I think, is where these two loves of mine intersect at their point of commonality. See, to really know a language, you have to be able to comprehend, able to read, able to speak. You have to be skilled to some extent in it, and you also have to know some background--where is this language coming from? What are its eccentricities? How is it different from my native language?
And people are the same way. To be able to really know a person, you have to have some relationship skills. You have to be able to read people a little. You have to have some idea of their history, of how they speak and why, and how they are different from you. If you act as though all people are just like you, it will be no more useful to you than if you acted as though English were the common tongue of all humanity.
