Language is very important. Language is essential in order to communicate. But that’s not the only reason language is used. With language you can tell about people’s culture. Although there might be thousands or even millions of types of language or dialects, language in whatever culture is the way to show and express culture. In other words language is not just a way to talk to friends, but it is a way to keep cultures alive by spreading their history and in fact keeping it alive in other people.
All three authors talk about different situations when it comes to language. Nana Veary talks about how she thinks that her native Hawaiian culture is dying; having much to do with the fact that people don’t use native Hawaiian languages but the use the colonized language that was thought to Hawaiians. I do agree with her overall thesis, about how her native culture is being lost, because the native Hawaiian tongue is gone. I agree with her opinion because I think that a culture without a language is lost. In order to spread and teach people about anything you need to talk and communicate to them what is important. Like the Aztecs, if it wasn’t for people wanting to know about the Aztec culture their culture would have been long lost. Although Nahuatl, Aztec language, is a very cryptic and somewhat dead language, people have taken it upon themselves to try to learn part of the language to try understanding the Aztec culture. It is very important to have a language because that is how you can teach people your culture, your way of life. Without any culture, life can be lost in the unknown and forgotten.
Many other authors view language in a different way. Gloria Anzaldua, in her essay states that, “we are our language”. She says that in order to take pride in ourselves first we have to take pride in ourselves first we have to take pride in our language. I think that people should take pride in their language because their language is who they are and nobody should feel ashamed of who they are or where they come from. Language shows our culture and our culture makes us who we are so I don’t understand how anyone can be ashamed of their language. It is in fact who we are. Language is culture and without it you would see a bland and ordinary world.
It is obvious that we do not live in a bland and ordinary world. The evidence of that are the different cultures and languages there are. These hundreds of thousands of languages i.e. culture is what makes us unique. For instance in
Around the world people view language as a way to separate people, a barrier between people and there cultures. A barrier that keeps people from each other but what I think is that all these languages are the key to dropping this barrier. The thirst for learning about a new culture is what brings us together. Although we might not know the language we can learn it and then in fact can be filled with everything it can bring to our lives.
