Life & Language: A New Defintion of Language Acquisition

Over the past two weeks, we have touched on the pervasive nature of language—basically, when one acquires a language other than his or her native tongue, he or she might also notice a shift in worldview, culture, understanding and beyond.

And, as cliché as it sounds, we do take language for granted in many respects.

Bobby Smith, a 10-year-old young man in the U.S. who is living with autism, was non-verbal until recently. Experiences like Smith’s serves as examples of the extent to which some may underestimate verbal language’s effect in daily life.

According to a CNN report that highlights Smith’s and others’ stories, people experiencing autism who are also nonverbal often embark on their language journeys at unexpected times and in unexpected ways (Smith started speaking at nine years old, for instance).

As humans, we have come to assign value to the ability to use our mouths to obstruct, allow and manipulate air to meet our language needs (known to most  as “talking”).

Because one might rarely encounter a non-verbal person in his or her daily life, a non-verbal person may be considered “other.” But most of those living in such a situation likely did not choose that experience (David Brooks unpacks this idea wonderfully using the “experiential narrative” dynamic in his book The Social Animal).

Encounters with stories like these give us the opportunity to reflect on how we encounter, perceive, value or devalue difference and how that relates to language.

Language often serves as a cultural transporter. How many times have you as a bilingual or multilingual person been calmly chatting with someone and then, suddenly, you realize that you and that person share another language? The dynamic almost always changes, right?

Last week, I was at a banquet and started a casual conversation with a person at my table. As soon as she mentioned that she had family in the Dominican Republic, I immediately swelled with excitement.

“No me digas—yo  pasé tres semanas allá en 2011…”(No way—I spent three weeks there in 2011). The conversation transitioned from English in a formal dining table to lively Spanish and the rich memories that accompanied our respective visits to the capital city of Santo Domingo.

In Bobby Smith’s case, he was transported from a life of nonverbal communication to one with some verbal capabilities. Truly a whole new world, just like that “aha” moment in which we realize we share language with another.

Yet another reason for us to value language and the way it manifests itself in all experiences.