Hallo Alle! Wie geht es dir?
Which means: Hello Everyone! How are you doing?
Languages are a vast and complex entity of their own, crossing generations and the tide of time and change, having seen victory and war, birth and death, and the rise of the human race in the ever-changing and evolving world across thousands of years. Work in modern science, especially genetics, has shown that the development of human speech and the biological vocal instruments has been prevalent from almost 200,000 years ago. Every language carries its own memory of its beginning, stories, emotions and understanding that instantly connects the people knowledgeable and capable of speaking a particular tongue. It's fascinating to think about the vast breadth and depth of the languages existing in today's world, many of which may even remain undiscovered, shrouded in isolation and mystery. Like the multitude of pious rivers that grace the lands that have been transformed into dynamic human-dwelling habitats, languages flow through populations through regional dialects and variations, neither of them the same as the other.
It is only when you speak, live, and breathe a language that we begin to understand the story behind the culture and traditions that have accompanied it throughout the history of humankind, uncovering new meanings for 'normal' and 'taboo'- we begin to realize that maybe the world we live in and it's amazing peculiarities do not all need a rigid definition that they need to fit in to. Maybe the world we will embark on the journey of life in is more....free. That everything the world has to offer can only be experienced by us if we are open enough to remove our own cultural lenses and also try other equally colorful lenses once in a while.
My weekly ramble about languages for this week actually has an interesting root- as it is this fall that I began learning German, taking it as a class in college. In many ways, it is a language that shares many surprising similarities with English, and yet it does have the ability to throw you off in certain instances- remnants of something called a genealogical relationship, when a group of languages share a common historical lineage. It is fascinating to feel and experience how learning the language is a gateway not only to the culture, but also into the daily lives of the people who speak and live it. You being to begin to understand how much the shaping of the culture the perspective that it gifts to its people can be understood by learning the tongue.
Oftentimes, it requires us to open up to exposing ourselves to pieces of the language through music, movies and other mainstream media that are popular in that culture. In German classes, we often talk our fellow classmates in whatever tidbits we learnt for the day, playing Pictionary and guessing the words in German, and listening to German music, like German rapper and singer Namika's 'Lieblingsmensch', which quite literally translates to 'favorite person'. You begin to visualize life and perspective through the eyes of someone from 'Deutschland' (Germany), and begin to wonder how their language, very different from your own mother tongue, allows them to view the world and life as a whole, and how it may share something in common with your origin too.
An intriguing thing about German is its intricate structure and how words tend to build upon each other into large compound words, really pushing to achieve and function with a clear sense of high mental organization and precision, which shapes the way your mind thinks about your daily life, passions and ambitions as well. Numbers in German is something that might probably leave a lot of people in a state of recurring surprise- if you are saying the number 1035, a German would probably spell it as 'Eintausendundfünfunddreißig'!
Learning the language one step at a time each week teaches you so many seemingly simple things about human communication and habits that appear to obvious and ordinary, yet actually are what hold the actual essence and significance of the lives we lead as individuals. Honest communication and uninterrupted conversations are quite literally woven into the German language, while also drawing clear boundaries between those that are formal and informal. The line introduced to differentiate between speaking formally and informally to someone is one that is also observed in many other languages including my own mother tongue Tamil, and other South and East Asian languages- quite unlike in English. Yet another window into life through these cultures is opened, showing us how some languages and cultures naturally dedicate importance to age and hierarchies in various spheres of society. It also turns out that they are very direct, straightforward people who speak their thoughts openly in daily life, and are also the origin of the Brothers Grimm, who gifted to the world their collection European folklore and oral tales passed down generations, and those of today's beloved fairy tales including Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, Snow White and Rapunzel. Often, German also has words referring to emotions that have no direct translation to that in English and often refer to feelings very specific to the context and setting of the place, which is also seen in many languages in Asia.
However, the German language is pretty ancient, like many other languages that have evolved through time, and is spoken vastly in other nations like Austria, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, and some parts of Italy, Switzerland and Belgium, and the past behind this is one that dates back to the times of the rule of mighty empires like the German and Austro-Hungarian empire, and regional splits over war rivalry, religion, migration, alliance and community. Today, a lot of German-speaking regions lie outside of Germany due to these historical splits and arrangements, greatly affecting and changing the landscape of the German language, with dialects being considerably varied and different from one another.
It's almost like learning a new language gives you the chance to experience another life, another setting of the world, equipping you with another new perspective and a new lens. Even though there is, and there always will be a lot to learn, you get to know something more, something new, that may perhaps become new lessons we carry with us in our lives. We understand a little more about embracing other cultures and traditions with an honest and open mind, with curiosity and enthusiasm, while also being willing to share ours in harmony. It teaches about the contributions of different ethnic and cultural human populations to our global identity and journey from past to present, how learning a language allows you to experience a world within another world and step into a new sphere of imagination and creation.
Guten Tag, Alle!
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