Helen Keller writes that the acquisition of language "set her free." I agree. I feel that language provides us with a sense of independence and freedom. I agree with Leonard Michaels who wrote the essay My Yiddish. He states that we sometimes focus intently on language. We can express ourselves through our language. We can show our intellectual level, and our personality.
The first amendment in our constitution is the freedom of speech. We have been given the freedom to express ourselves through our language. I think that sometime people take it for granted. We will sometime keep our mouths shut in order to not express ourselves. When you have the opportunity let language be your expressive means. I also think that we can over use this right. Sometimes since we think that we can say whatever we want, we say things that hurt other people. There is a fine line between expressing yourself and hurting others. We sometimes just do not think and it becomes an unconscious activity where is does not really express who we are because we are not consciously doing the speaking.
I think that language can also be a barrier to our freedom. When there are many different languages it makes it difficult to communicate with others. For example imagine being a person who only spoke Spanish who came to America for freedom. You hear about these kinds of stories all the time. Just imagine thinking you are going to be free then coming here and not being able to really express yourself because you don't speak English. The freedom you once thought you were going to find is not there due to a lack of being able to communicate. Fortunately people are becoming bilingual which opens many paths of freedom.
Language is unique and different to every person. I look at my friends and yes we all speak the same language but we speak differently. Some people speak politically correct. Some use slang. One thing I noticed is that we all have our own little catch phrases that express us. I hear my friends saying "low key", "For sure", "ight", "right", or "all bad". Just their little phrases that make them who they are, they each are different I think it is expressive. They can show you that they have a personality and they are not like everyone else. I think that if we all spoke the same way that life would be boring. Some of my personal catch phrases are "for real" and "bad news". These are just little quirks about me that make me unique with my language.
In conclusion, I think that, yes, language does provide us with freedom. Language is unique. It was not the same for Helen Keller as it was for Malcolm X. They both used language very differently. Even though Helen Keller had many boundaries set on her she still found her own language that set her free. So do not let boundaries hold you back. Find your language and roll with it. Let it set you free.
I definitely agree with you that language is way that sets a person free. I know that when you cannot communicate efficiently with others, you are always at a disadvantage. People over time have definitely used language to set themselves free. People even use pen names to say things they would not ever say when people know who they are. Words set people, they can say what they want when they want. Being able to communicate opens so many worlds for a person. When we can communicate fully with someone we are more likely to get a better job because you are better educated and equipped with the skills to properly communicate.
ReplyDeleteYou are right, most of us do speak English but we all very in how we use the language to portray what we went want to say. Like, you were saying with catch phrases, my friend also says “low key” which to her means, like she does not care if people know, but she is not going to blast it from the roof tops. I know in my group of friends we make a lot of “thats what she said” jokes and other people do not find those jokes funny, but that is us using the language we know and using the different meanings that words have in our language which makes it funny to us.
Language can set us free, while it can also be the thing that ties us down, which is why we have the 5th amendment that gives us the right to not incriminate which language could possibly do.