Language, the Solution to the World's Problems

LANGUAGE, THE SOLUTION TO THE WORLD’S PROBLEMS

If you had been asleep, wake up! The world is a global village but have you ever wondered about the powerful weapon and forces that has linked the world together into a compact community? Few give a thought to this and this has never crossed the minds of many. Even the few who have given thought to this are not quite sure of what they think, they can’t really pinpoint what exactly has glued the world together. Most say it’s the internet that has got people in recent era connected together, through social media and the likes but, I say no to this. What do you think?

Language is well known among the human race, but what majority of the human race don’t realise is how formidable language is. Without language man is an animal. Yes! An animal would be the perfect description of man without language. I say this without doubt from my recent experience and after a guided learning session on animal rights led by my host sister, Daisylea, a UK volunteer. Here I am, dumb founded I walk along the streets of Tolon, in the Northern region of Ghana, where Dagbani is mainly spoken. A language I am not conversant with, how ‘foolish’ I looked. I must talk to someone but how? The words of my host sister then came to mind “…because they cannot speak, we have to speak for them”. Here in Tolon someone has to speak for me. Then I began to think of myself as an animal, how piteous it feels to be an animal. Perhaps animals are not so stupid after all. I began to imagine those words animals wish they could tell us when we engage with them.

Language gives man a unique characteristic. Language gives man the ability to connect with one another. Conflicts and wars have reduced in the world because of language. Language forms the basis of understanding between people. It provides to others the knowledge of what you think. The absence of a common spoken language accounted for battles fought between regions. But today, the world has a language to communicate with other regions of the world, and this has increased peace in the world. Halfway through the International Citizen Service (ICS) program I began to ask myself, how on earth did we connect and work together with the UK Volunteers (UKVs) in such a successful manner? Then I found the answer to be language. Personally I have been able to connect with my (UKVs). So lack of connectedness between people isn’t colour but language. Despite the fact that I am African, from a sister tribe by blood but can’t speak the language, I appear no different from my UK counterparts (UKVs) to the people of Tolon not because of my colour but language. Has anyone ever given a thought to how powerful language is? Or what position language occupies in this course? Or the contribution of language to the world’s current compact nature? I don’t really expect many to do so, it never really occurred to me either, until a few days ago on the ICS programme. The definition of what an animal is and the reason why man is so different from an animal comes to mind as soon as we come to think of this.

                                   A role play at Katinga market on awareness raising

How could we have connected with a population that mainly speaks Dagbani on our market day awareness raising event? In the picture above is Hadija and Madina, two of the three Dagbani speakers among our group. They connected us to the public in Dagbani through a role play. Without the language we may stand in the middle of the crowd for God knows how long conveying nothing to the public. How could we have connected with a population that mainly speaks Dagbani on our market day awareness raising event?

 

community pair with IGGs and NFEED supervisor

Connectedness is not about space, neither is it about the colour of our skin. It is not about how close we stand next to someone, rather it is about how close the words we speak are linked. It doesn’t matter how close you stand next to others. Standing in the two pictures is me and my community pair trying hard to connect to our IGG members through the Tolon supervisor who is always with us to break the language barrier between us. Despite the space, despite how close we stand before them in the picture we still can’t connect with them due to the language barrier. We have to connect to them through the supervisor, a native speaker. I have just connected with you through the internet but…with language! I therefore propose a common language to the world, what do you think?

This blog is written on the personal observation of the writer, an in-country ICS volunteer, Ghana and not based on any factual grounds. However, it is logic, worth reading and awakens thoughts. Hope you enjoyed it. “MPAHAYA” –Thank you.

By: Jaabir Issah, ICS Volunteer.