About Language

According to some philosophies, we can't think without language. Is through it that we name everything around us. And each culture there is a different language that interferes with the way of seeing the world.

Language is very important in the human growth stage (and this is what differentiates us most from animals). We can observe in the classic movie The Enigma of Kasper Hauser (1974). Kasper Hauser was a mysterious child that was abandoned and lived alone until 16 years old. Kasper was a victim of social isolation because he lived in captivity locked without human coexistence in the rural zone of Mittlelfranken (Germany). The boy hadn't físic and verbal contact with anybody and thereat, without access to learning to language, he was unable to elaborate thoughts and to do interpreting about what happened around him.

The story tells that Kasper was found downtown with a letter in his hand, where explanation his situation. It is unknown why he was imprisoned and released later. The people who found him tried to civilize him. He gets to speak, write and learn to socialize when he receives suitable stimuli. After his death, his brain was a study object to explain the phenomenon of the deprivation of language and the human capacity to learn when at social interaction.

This movie is a true story, presents how language is essential to our development how human beings.

Language has the power to transform, therefore it is important to master it. It can bring peace and generate war; bless and curse; win and lose. It all depends on that the meaning and who interprets it. And we have two kinds of language: verbal and non-verbal,  and the two complement each other.

It is impossible to separate language and thought. Even when we are sleeping and dreaming, we use language mentally. Language is more than communication tools it is a reflection of our culture. When we are learning a new language, we are learning a new way to speak but to think too and it can affect the way we see the world. 

Each language reaches our heart differently. As the beautiful phrase of Nelson Mandela: "If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his own language, that goes to his heart."