On Language & Limitations…

What are the consequences of our inability to understand a language?

This question appears to be quite simplistic. If one does not speak or understand the same language as the other, then one cannot know what is being communicated.

Is it that black and white?

For aren’t there times when two people speak the same language, however, one still cannot understand what is being conveyed? There seems to exist degrees of understanding but how can I ever know at which degree we are on?

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I cannot have a thought without using language. I could say something ridiculous in my head that isn’t a real word but I still turn to language in order to preface it, to think of it, and to explain it. I am trapped. I cannot get outside of my language. My reality is my language arbitrarily projected onto things in the world.

What is a tree outside of the language you prescribe to it? Nothing. What is my world without my ability to describe it? Nothing.

My life is my language, be it internally or outwardly expressed. I only know something so far as I can begin to explain it. When I see or listen to something I cannot explain, I am startled. If I can project my language onto something then I can start to understand it. When there are no words, no language, one is ‘awestruck’. Like when one cannot describe the sensation of gazing at a sunset — one just feels it.

Mysticism arises out of language's inability to explain natural phenomena.

There are degrees to which we cannot understand language. If someone speaks a different language completely then I cannot understand him. What is the consequence? I do not understand his world. I cannot empathize with him and thus, I cannot know him.

I may understand someone, for we speak the same language. But the words he uses, his vocabulary, how he describes his reality are different than mine. I try hard to grasp his world but I fail. I have used a certain set of words to build my reality, my language is my tool. When he uses a different set of language tools then it is hard for me to understand his reality, even if we speak the same language.

For example, If we’re building a house but you use different tools to build this house, If I come with a hammer and a nail and you come with a set of ropes, then I am perplexed by this. I know that this is a tool because of the context we are in but why are you using these tools? What is their purpose? Why are you not using my tools? We have the same aim in mind and even the same means to arrive there, however, the method by which we go about this is entirely different — what is the better tool?

This is speaking the same language but still resulting in misunderstanding.

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If I think about ancient Chinese medicine, my Western mind cannot comprehend the way the Chinese thought about wellness. They use different words, they use different language tools to describe their medicinal approach, rooted in Nature and Energy. Their ideas can be translated and communicated to me and I can even read about them in books but it still sounds foreign — why? My mind views and interprets medicine in an entirely different language paradigm. If I can’t understand their language, I, again, cannot grasp their world and so I dismiss it.

Where else may this incomprehensibility be applied? What else have we cast off as inadequate merely because we lack the language necessary to understand?

What about the Cosmos? This is an entirely different framework for interpreting your reality. When someone reads your horoscope, it is hard to interpret what they are saying, the words fly over one’s head, is that because it is wrong? No, it is because you don’t speak the language of the stars.

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If I don’t understand how you make sense of your world then how can I make sense of you?

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I understand the worlds of those I associate with most closely because we speak the same language. When I understand your world, I understand you. We interpret our world in a similar manner because we use similar languages, this is what brings us together. I laugh at your jokes because I understand how you use language to convey sarcasm and witticisms, if I can’t understand your language then I do not find you funny and we are at a loss. When we interpret the world in a similar manner, it leads to us having similar preferences and ideas, these similarities are the foundation for companionship and at this foundation, is language.

When we try and get to know someone we ask questions not about their thoughts but about the language they use to convey their thoughts, these are two different things. For how you convey the idea and how you think about it, are separate.

You may go a whole lifetime without knowing a best friend because of the discrepancy between what they think and what they say — this happens often.

My goal in communication is to align my thoughts with my language in order to portray my ideas. I am what I think about most. I am how I use my language to convey what I think about most.

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My language is my consciousness expressed in the physical realm, it is what creates me. Without an ability to express language, my consciousness is represented as my behavior but maybe not my character?

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What am I to say about someone who cannot speak? Who is mute? I may understand who they are through their actions but for me, something is missing, there is a piece of them I cannot seem to grasp.

Are they as free as me? Is language a requirement for freedom? How else does one create?

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When we lose a language we lose a piece of the world. This is why we work hard to preserve language because of what it represents. When a language is lost, so are its people, culture, and traditions.

Language is a world.

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Trouble arises when we try to impose our language on another group. Are all wars fought because of the yearning to rule language? When you rule the language you rule a world.

I understand the limits of my language and so I think beyond them.