Importance of Language

Every day and every hour we hear words, letters and phrases: these are the means of communication between me and another person. If we both speak the same language we can connect on another level, versus someone who speaks a completely different language than me. English, my primary language, has been part of me since the day I was born, but another language, Vietnamese, has been part of my grandpa’s life since the day he was born. It is fascinating to see my grandpa going through the drive-thru at a fast-food restaurant.

When I was a kid, my grandpa used to take me to Arby’s all the time. He would take me in his beaten up green truck, and we would roll down the street to Arby’s. Every time, he would get the roast beef sandwich and I would get the curly fries. Man those were good. We would go through the drive-thru and when the person on the intercom asked my grandpa what he wanted, my grandpa would tell him “roo-bee-san-with” and “ca-ree-fry”. For some odd reason, it seemed that there was always a different person working every time we went, because the person on the intercom would never recognize old gramp’s English, even though we came there about a billion times.

Eventually though, they would understand what my gramps was trying to say and we would have our delicious warm food. Time went past, and the world didn’t seem to change. Me being a grown adult and all, it was my turn to take my grandpa to Arby’s, but stubborn old gramps wouldn’t let me. I guess it has something to do with the Vietnamese culture, the younger person was always lower than his or her elder. Anyway, he would drive me down the street to Arby’s and same ole, same ole, he would take me through the drive-thru and say “roo-bee-san-with” and “ca-ree-fry”, and again, the person wouldn’t be able to understand him, but eventually they would, and me and my grandpa would have our scrumptious food.

The funny thing is, another Vietnamese person could easily have a conversation with my grandpa in full-out English and they would understand each other completely. Which I still don’t get. Perhaps you have to be Vietnamese to understand Vietnamese accents, and British to understand British accents. Even though me and my grandpa can speak English, it’s as though we speak entirely different languages. For example, I can easily tell if someone’s from Kentucky versus someone from the Bronx.

English is the means of communication, but we communicate in different ways. Someone from Kentucky might call a sprite, a soda, someone from the Bronx, might call it pop. Accents are what separate me and my grandpa. To me, dialect defines where we came from, who we hang around and what languages we can speak. Where is exactly is he or she from? Anyone may answer this question for themselves, the only thing I consider to be obvious is their accent. Language serves the role of exchanging ideas through communication in a way for other people to understand it. Language helps identify personal identities through certain words or accents to reveal where a person is from, like New York, China, or Kentucky.

Through one language, we can see the blend of diverting cultures. To me, that is one of the most important things of language. The means of not only spoken communication but communication on a deeper level, where words cannot express. Through this importance of language, I can connect with someone on a deeper level through their culture. Like listening to a hip-hop song, I can almost feel the intensity of how that rapper grew up in the projects dodging bullets from gang members. In the end, language is what brings us humans together, and also separates us as a whole.

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Importance of Language. (2016, Jul 15). Retrieved from https://phdessay.com/importance-of-language/

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