Language and Communication

I actually have been thinking about this topic for a week.

The topic is simply about a language.

I have 3 problems or stories about this.

(i use indonesian :p)

1. Semester baru ini, junior saya kebetulan harus tinggal dengan orang vietnam. dan orang vietnam ini ternyata tidak bisa berbicara bahasa inggris ataupun mandarin. Hal ini membuat adik kelas saya ini kebingungan bagaimana sekiranya harus berkomunikasi dengan orang ini. Sering terjadi masalah antara mereka dan adik kelas saya semakin bingung bagaimana caranya menyelesaikan masalah ini.

2. Jujur saja, saya di taiwan, khususnya di wenzao ini, mempunyai beberapa teman yang juga berasal dari Indonesia. Dan teman-teman taiwan ini menggandrungi laki-laki yang datang dari Indonesia. Ada satu teman taiwan saya yang menyarankan agar kami, yang wanita, banyak belajar dari mereka karena mereka terlihat sangat fasih berbahasa mandarin.

3. Dari sejak bulan mei, saya tertarik dengan sebuah bahasa buatan milik Tolkien bernama Quenya. ada sebuah pertanyaan dari seseorang di Tumblr, "saya sebenarnya sangat ingin belajar Quenya, tapi sayangnya, tidak ada orang yang memakai Quenya." dan seseorang lain menjawab, "Kalau kamu ingin belajar sebuah bahasa hanya karena ingin bicara dan berkomunikasi dalam bahasa itu, kamu melupakan esensi dari sebuah bahasa itu sendiri."

From these three things, i asked myself :

1. Do foreign land belong only to people who are able to speak its language? or every and each person has the same right to go abroad? with or without language ability.

2. If language is a necessary tool for communication, why do we learn a proper grammar just to communicate with each other? while some close friends even communicate with only two eyes and one smile. or a teacher with only an angry faces to show that he dislike the situation.

3. Do people, who learn language, learn language just to be able to communicate, or is it even more complex than what it seems?

4. what is the essential things of learning a language?

from what i have experienced for about these 2 years, i learn that we could understand somebody's culture by learn its language. and we could understand how human brain works, for people is the creature who create language. and i learn that language always has something to do with logic, and that's why people create grammar as 'the law' of using one's language.

from what i have seen everyday. you know, i study in a school for those who are interested in learning language. tho we learn same thing, about language, we have different reasons. most of the people i met, learn language to make themselves be able to communicate with native. or most of them just love the land that use the language.

but i, in general. i learn language because i like to learn how great this discovery is! how great a human brain to understand random words. and how culture could be seen by studying the way they use language.

it would be more linguistic.

but then, i found out one simple thing that language and communication are two different things, they are related to each other but they aren't the same things.

i discovered that (while i was taking a bath a while ago)

-be able to communicate doesn't necessarily mean you could master the language.

-and if you master a language doesn't mean you could be able to communicate with other person.

that means, the first problem of my junior is not about how bad is she in chinese or english, but how this vietnamese communicate with my junior. People could always do some other things to communicate, and in this case, proper grammar doesn't even needed.

and my second problem. the claim said that the indonesian boys in my school is good at communication with people, doesn't mean that their chinese is good. i mean, do these boys really understand how a chinese word were made long time ago. or how chinese culture influence the use of its language, or what's the different between nowadays chinese and ancient chinese language. proper grammar doesnt even needed, what they need is to use what they have heard from local people.

my third problem. i agree with the man who said that there might be an essential things when you learn language. not only how you communicate but also the language itself.

by writing this thing doesn't mean i use a proper grammar, but that also means, im not a master in language :p

i looked into wikipedia and found out that language is a complex system of communication. But communication is one of its definition.

some of you might have known what im talking about here. But to find that how language is different compare to communication, is a pain in the ass for me. I used my sleep time to think of it :p

but then im happy to have finally found out how and why. :)