The English Language and The Sense Of Self

Human language is a unique communication that is both socially learned and one of the many traits that keep the homo sapiens superior-most in the diverse kingdom of animals. This result of human effort of deveolping a medium through which they understand those around them does not only offer open-ended communicative potential but also a means to express, store and develop including but not limited to history, ideas, words that inspire actions, and literature. The process has been a correlation to or of culture; as language develops in a region so do the literary ideas about socialization and culture that embed themselves into the course of human society for any given point in time, thus making language the inevitable companion in the sense of self, and the sense of belonging to a community. The richness of all the beauty of how we greet our beloved either by a hand shake or a nod is a form of socialization easily expressed through the language that act is culturally relevant to. So beautiful is the sheer sense of belonging our mother tongue bestows upon our sense of self, making us feel wholesome. We have a medium to relate to, making us feel like a part of something bigger. That is why, finding someone with the same native language stuck at an airport in a country where your language isn’t even known is an enthralling experience.

However, the surging pressure to know the international communication system also known as the English language has hampered the systematic evolution of an average person’s mother tongue other than English to go through the same phase of linguistic change that correlates to the point of transition our human capacities and culture lie at. That poses a threat to the evolution of the human biological capacity for language as it is pretty much simultaneous to the cultural evolution of language itself.

The internet trends are flooded with jokes mocking cultures and while some of them happen to be all in good fun, the others set out to display the horrible stereotype that exists berating a certain regional identity. The solution to self worth issues suddenly becomes the English language and the New York accent suddenly makes you cool, even if you’ve never been to the United States. The rise of globalization has lead the millennials transitioning from being naturally well versed in the language used at home to struggling with the English tenses so they can sell themselves on the international market. After all, that’s the language that’s going to get you to employers across the globe, giving you better life chances. Human language is a natural and inevitable consequence of cultural evolution and the growing trend in giving up on one’s native language has lead to local cultures become slow or stagnant in their development.

The one thing that has cost an average person who does not speak English as his or her first language is sense of self.

Speaking in a different language at school, workplace and social media inevitably bring forward the English culture that seeps deep within our socialization. While that contributes the ever-changing nature of culture, the pressure to make that culture a part of your lifestyle makes one inevitably look down upon the past cultural values held by them. The relationship with two languages and hence the two cultures is awkward; you want to become American but you are a Pakistani.

Another loss that we incur as a race that carries the most intellectual capacity is the loss of ideas. Not everyone with the willingness and the capacity to discover a new mathematical theorem, further a study of human parthenogenesis (virgin birth), or become the most articulate writer may know the English language. Individuals having access to forms of furthering study on or pursuing a passion of the most inspiring ideas may not always succeed at presenting their work to a wider audience if they lack proficiency in the English language. This lack of linguistic ability in the bankable language will bring back the stereotype of judging a person based on the language they speak, possibly keeping some very valuable ideas to grow.