A current summer class is a composition class and this was an essay I wrote... hope you enjoy :)
Language: Revealing Our Internal Experience and Connecting Us Externally
Language is a beautiful web of sounds creating words, and words string together to form sentences which form thoughts and ideas which influence our emotions and actions. Language is revealing; in complexity, in simplicity, in vagueness, in directness. How we use language, specifically our words, to express our self is indicative of our thoughts, emotions, perceptions, dreams, desires, beliefs and values including how we view our self and how we view the world. Language is an essential medium through which we understand our self and through which we connect to everything around us. Our words reveal this internal experience and lay the foundation for establishing a relationship with the world and people around us.
There exists a constant flow of energy between what we are perceiving from our physical senses, interpretation of these inputs, and our response to these perceptions. This is a flow of external to internal, and vice versa as we respond. We use language to understand each aspect of this process; sometimes, we may not be able to articulate into words what we are feeling or thinking exactly, not able to find the right way to express our experience. This creates confusion and frustration. When we are able to find the language that accurately describes our experience, we can clearly share our thoughts and emotions facilitating connection to those around us and more importantly, establishing a relationship with our self. Perhaps we see an object that we are unfamiliar with and we do not have a word to use, so we use words we do know to describe it, relate it to other objects we are familiar with to establish context and create a relationship between what is known and unknown. In this way, language is an avenue in which we establish connection between and understand our internal and external environments.
Word choice is one aspect of language which, overall, is a medium of self-expression, revealing who we are, what we believe in, our likes and dislikes, our desires and dreams, your fears and doubts - every aspect of ourselves. The words one chooses to share with others is indicative of how you perceive yourself and how you perceive the world around you. If words are vague and unclear, this indicates that within one’s own mind, clarity is lacking. If words are direct and bold, this indicates there is clarity and an established idea. Ignoring whether an idea is “right” or “wrong,” the language used displays where you stand, your level of confidence in your expression, and identifies what you see, hear, feel, smell, and taste in your surrounding environment. As an example of how words can demonstrate fears, George Carlin, in a piece about how soft language hides truth, shares about his frustration with referring to old people as young. He says, “Imagine the fear of aging that reveals. To not even be able to use the word ‘old’ to describe somebody. To have to use an antonym.” The word choice of “ninety years young” externalizes and demonstrates the internal denial of being ninety years old. Words are a method to make sense of all the pieces and parts that create our reality so that we are able to navigate society and culture individually and, then, to share our unique perceptions with other people using words, again, in hopes of converting isolation into camaraderie.
Humans, collectively, have a desire to be understood and to understand. This contributes to our happiness, collectively and individually. Language is an incredibly complex medium through which we have evolved and developed to articulate, express, discover, create and share. Without language, without agreeing that these specific sounds generally mean these ideas, concepts, or things, humans would not have the opportunity to do anything we currently do. Our life is based upon language, the ability to communicate effectively with each other. The structure of the language itself, culture and history all participate in the modern expression of language; with room for context, connotation, implied meanings, individual interpretation, and freedom to explore or invent new phrases and words. It is truly a 360-degree web of sounds, or words, which we have all agreed to use in order to be in relationship with one another.
To connect with others, we must first become established within our own experience. When we are able to understand our self, use words to conceptualize our perceptions, transform our sensory input into clear thoughts, identify what is happening around us; when we are able to clearly reveal our self to the world, we will have greater opportunities for connection because we will be able to bridge these two experiences of internal and external perception. We will know where we stand in the web and be able to link to where others stand using words. Language unifies us in being able to work together, maintain life as we know it and strive to improve it for the wellbeing of all.
There exists a constant flow of energy between what we are perceiving from our physical senses, interpretation of these inputs, and our response to these perceptions. This is a flow of external to internal, and vice versa as we respond. We use language to understand each aspect of this process; sometimes, we may not be able to articulate into words what we are feeling or thinking exactly, not able to find the right way to express our experience. This creates confusion and frustration. When we are able to find the language that accurately describes our experience, we can clearly share our thoughts and emotions facilitating connection to those around us and more importantly, establishing a relationship with our self. Perhaps we see an object that we are unfamiliar with and we do not have a word to use, so we use words we do know to describe it, relate it to other objects we are familiar with to establish context and create a relationship between what is known and unknown. In this way, language is an avenue in which we establish connection between and understand our internal and external environments.
Word choice is one aspect of language which, overall, is a medium of self-expression, revealing who we are, what we believe in, our likes and dislikes, our desires and dreams, your fears and doubts - every aspect of ourselves. The words one chooses to share with others is indicative of how you perceive yourself and how you perceive the world around you. If words are vague and unclear, this indicates that within one’s own mind, clarity is lacking. If words are direct and bold, this indicates there is clarity and an established idea. Ignoring whether an idea is “right” or “wrong,” the language used displays where you stand, your level of confidence in your expression, and identifies what you see, hear, feel, smell, and taste in your surrounding environment. As an example of how words can demonstrate fears, George Carlin, in a piece about how soft language hides truth, shares about his frustration with referring to old people as young. He says, “Imagine the fear of aging that reveals. To not even be able to use the word ‘old’ to describe somebody. To have to use an antonym.” The word choice of “ninety years young” externalizes and demonstrates the internal denial of being ninety years old. Words are a method to make sense of all the pieces and parts that create our reality so that we are able to navigate society and culture individually and, then, to share our unique perceptions with other people using words, again, in hopes of converting isolation into camaraderie.
Humans, collectively, have a desire to be understood and to understand. This contributes to our happiness, collectively and individually. Language is an incredibly complex medium through which we have evolved and developed to articulate, express, discover, create and share. Without language, without agreeing that these specific sounds generally mean these ideas, concepts, or things, humans would not have the opportunity to do anything we currently do. Our life is based upon language, the ability to communicate effectively with each other. The structure of the language itself, culture and history all participate in the modern expression of language; with room for context, connotation, implied meanings, individual interpretation, and freedom to explore or invent new phrases and words. It is truly a 360-degree web of sounds, or words, which we have all agreed to use in order to be in relationship with one another.
To connect with others, we must first become established within our own experience. When we are able to understand our self, use words to conceptualize our perceptions, transform our sensory input into clear thoughts, identify what is happening around us; when we are able to clearly reveal our self to the world, we will have greater opportunities for connection because we will be able to bridge these two experiences of internal and external perception. We will know where we stand in the web and be able to link to where others stand using words. Language unifies us in being able to work together, maintain life as we know it and strive to improve it for the wellbeing of all.