28 August 2013

Sobremesa

I came across this list* today and I really like it.  It reminds me of why I like languages so much.  Language is both unifying and indentifying.

It´s almost amazing that separately in the world, culture after culture has come up with their own way to express the emotions and understandings all humans experience.  In an act of solidarity, everyone in the world came up with their own way to express gratitude, for instance.  And this makes me feel like a part of such a big team.  Such a big team of people who all understand and express this feeling in its most sincere form.  This is us and this is what connects us as humans.  (I say almost amazing because humans do a lot of amazing things and we need to keep our perspective straight.)

However, language identifies us--puts a unique stamp on each of our foreheads.**  On a small scale, accents and colloquialisms identify our region within a language--but massively speaking, languages evolve to fit the needs of the people, culturally.  And I like this list because although we are all humans, and ultimately living in the same world, we express ourselves most perfectly through language.  It is the tool we continually forge to mirror our beliefs.


On a personal note, I love sobremesa and force Michael to observe it with each meal.

*The original post is here.

**An aside: I personally really wish I had the "New Orleans accent" naturally.  I don´t.  I do, however, try to use New Orleans-isms as much as possible, even though I know them to be gramatically incorrect.  I want people to know I´m from here.  I say "we´re going by her house later" and... any other funny things I hear--I try to repeat them often.