Language

I have been in France now for over a month and it has been quite the adventure. I wish now that I brought a computer so that I could actually type a little quicker than with it just attempting to  type out some things on my phone. Although phones are a great way to maintain connectivity they are not conductive to actual long blog posts and make it difficult to  get some decent work done. Lucky for me I have a great Room mate named Ronny who was more than willing to let me type on his little tablet with a bluetooth keyboard it has worked fantastically. So I toast my glass to  you Ronny, Thank you.

Today I want to talk to  you about the beauty of language. The more I explore the world and learn of local customs and traditions, the more realizations that I have about how amazing languages are. First off I grew up speaking one language which was just English until I ended up serving a mission for my church in Argentina where I ended up learning quite a bit of the Spanish language, and now that I am studying abroad in France I have come to understand another language that I am  improving on as I learn to  speak the beautiful french language.

Language study has taught me so much and has helped me to  not only increase the people that I can talk to  but it has also helped me to understand my own in ways that I have never understood it before. I am not an English mayor in the slightest, my forte lies in Architecture and the beauty that comes with interior design, but that does not mean that I do not enjoy the English language. I enjoy being able to  communicate and I like the way that it sounds because it is familiar to me and is my  native tongue. However,  when you combine that understanding with the understanding of other languages you start to  get an appreciation for the little things that you notice about your own language.

English is a language that borrows a lot of it's words from other languages. I have heard it called a the bully because leads other languages into dark  alleys beats them up and steals whatever piece of language that happens to be in the pockets of the victim. Which as I study continually the other languages I come to realize how correct this is. English is primarily a Western Germanic language that has evolved over several thousands of years, the English we speak today is known as modern English and borrows a lot of its words from several other languages including both French and Spanish.

This fascinates me, I get to know my language better because I am learning from it's ancestry. There are little things in the English language that are so similar to  our own. Some simple ones that we now are complete knock offs that we just decided to  use in every day conversation, such as Au revior, lingerie, parfum and deja vu. That are easy to  pick out and help you to get a more comprehensive grasp of the way we speak. Then there are other that are not so obvious.

one such example was something that Ronny pointed out to  me as we were waiting for the tram. Whenever it is just a little ways off the sign that  announces the arrivals flashes proche, which in French means next. Ronny being bright and connecting two and two together points out to me that this is another word that we have taken from the french language and have mutated it to  our own liking. Now I know that Proche is not something that we ever use in the English language, but approach is a word.
In a moment of insightful brilliance that helped me to appreciate the beauty of the English language Ronny helped me see the connection that exists between these two beautiful languages.

I know it is kind of a geeky thing to  write about, but it is beautiful. I know two and a quarter languages now and that makes me happy! Those two and a quarter languages that I know help me to  communicate with people all over Europe and North and South America. They  help  me to  speak to people that I would otherwise never have been able to talk with because I now can express myself in a foreign way. And that is not even the  most awe inspiring part. I only speak two and a quarter languages; there are over seven thousand languages spoken on this world. seven thousand ways that people have developed in order to  express themselves. I know I only speak a tiny fraction of what is in the world today but I feel that by learning even just a little I am connecting more with the world around me and that is awe inspiring.