By RICHARD BORDELON
“From the Desk of Richard Bordelon, Opinion Editor”— What gives you the ability to understand this? If I said this aloud to you, would you still understand it? If you read it aloud to me, would it sound the same as when I read it to you?
We share a language, one of the primary and simplest vehicles through which modern man communicates. We do not have to do an interpretive dance or make an elaborate painting; we can simply make sounds with our mouths, and the other person can understand us. English connects you and me and many of the people we know and love and allows us to communicate with each other effortlessly.
These sounds, at their core, are random. Those who invented Proto-Indo European, what many considered the basis for most Western languages, chose completely arbitrary noises and ordered them to differentiate certain things from others and to express certain feelings.
Eventually, this early language evolved as “civilization” grew from Mesopotamia into Africa, Asia and Europe. Empires rose and fell, each carrying with them their own language, their own arrangement of sounds and inflections. As modern empires grew and expanded their colonies, their languages spread around the world. People in Africa spoke English, people in Asia spoke French, and people in South America spoke Portuguese.
Regardless of one’s opinion on colonialism, it seems the world is shrinking and English is becoming the most prevalent language worldwide. Sometimes it is easy to forget that all of humanity does not share the same language. The arts, such as music or dance or visual art, are the only specific elements of our culture that have a universal language. Otherwise, the primary mode of interpersonal communication is through a vernacular, national language.
I was able to experience the universal language of music during high school, when my high school’s jazz band had an exchange program with a high school jazz band in Bamberg, Germany. Although most of us spoke no German, except “Ja” and “Nein,” we were able to sit at a music stand with our instruments and play perfectly together — without even speaking a word.
The inability to communicate fully with my new German friends, however, was the motivating factor for me to learn German here at Fordham. Most of the German students already spoke English decently, but the desire to communicate on a deeper level drove me to study their language.
Although more and more people, students in particular, are learning English, many other languages are prevalent in different parts of the world. By putting effort into learning someone’s native, cultural language, one can make a deeper connection with and a lasting impression on another person.
As cultures have developed, languages have evolved and separated—yet we still remain connected as humans. There is an interconnectedness among nations, countries and peoples, but cultures still remain distinct.
It is, indeed, an incredible testament to the ingenuity of humanity that when you read, see or hear Vom Schreibtisch von Richard Bordelon, Meinung Editor; Del Escritorio de Richard Bordelon, Opinión Editor or от стола Ричарда Bordelon, мнение редактора, they all mean the exact same thing.
