A nice short essay  by Greentongue on everything.2com  part of a conversation on how language changes everything.

Marvelling at a young daughter’s ability to switch languages when moving between countries, and reflecting on how later as a teen she chose to give up fluency in one language instead prefering the language of the peers she feels comfortable with.

Greentongue concludes with the thought that, maybe, what we mean when we ask others to speak our language is “help me feel comfortable by speaking my language“.

So, if I am with someone who is distressed and struggling in their life and I insist on using scientific, reductive precisely defined terms from a textbook: jargon that earned the right to use, working hard for years to memorise, catalogue and recall then  who is likely to feel more comfortable in that encounter?

or,  if I am with that same someone who is distressed or who is struggling with their life, then maybe I can adopt their language; listen to their words and understand what they mean to them. Maybe I can even start to understand for myself what they might feel.

…and maybe they will sense this and start to feel just  little more comfortable and a little more able to cope.

…and, maybe, by making that little effort I can show that I care enough to try to understand

…and yet maybe, by so doing I can enable them to feel less alone and a little more find able to hope…

Just a thought, but maybe that’s why the language we choose to use can be so important.

http://everything2.com/title/language+complicates+our+lives?author_id=2052915#Greentongue