I'd break down the language barriers. Everyone can understand and use every language. The words available to us would increase by a mind-shattering amount.
Don't have a gender neutral pronoun in English, so it's almost impossible for a large portion of the population to consider a person outside of that binary? Well, guess what, now you have plenty different gender neutral pronouns from which to choose!
Our language almost literally shapes our perception of reality. Until I knew the word schadenfreude, I couldn't access the idea of schadenfreude or identify its occurrence. Until I knew the word phobia, I could only say I was really, REALLY scared of the thing -- and that fell pretty short of reality.
If we had access to the vocabulary sets available in other languages and to the cultural implications of those languages, I think we'd all understand each other a whole hell of a lot better. We'd have more empathy and more awareness of the systems at work around us.
The implications here are, of course, farther reaching than a person like me could possibly anticipate (and would likely have some pretty terrible consequences), so it's probably a good thing I can't pop this into reality.
That being said -- maybe I'd just have everyone grow up bilingual!
EDIT and PS: Having a word for a thing legitimizes that thing. I bet depression could decrease too, if people could easily summarize and pin down what they're experiencing and observing!
Let me start off by saying I love your response. I completely agree. I have always wanted to learn another language. I have done my very best to learn German but have not done that great of a job. I would love to be able to see the world with new words and phrases to understand things. They do say communication is the most important part of a relationship. If this was applied to the bigger picture think of how much better we would get along with other countries and people from all over the world. How different would our relationship be? How different would our past, present and future be. This again can be applied to my personal response. Getting everyone to work for the greater good of humanity. Becoming one instead of many divided and fighting among ourselves. I truly wish that I was brought up bilingual. Even though I wasn't I will continue to work at learning more languages. Thank you for your response!
Good luck in your learnings! (Duolingo is a great, free tool for acquiring a foreign language.) And I completely agree -- foreign relations would improve exponentially without the misunderstandings that arise from language barriers!
I'd break down the language barriers. Everyone can understand and use every language. The words available to us would increase by a mind-shattering amount.
Don't have a gender neutral pronoun in English, so it's almost impossible for a large portion of the population to consider a person outside of that binary? Well, guess what, now you have plenty different gender neutral pronouns from which to choose!
Our language almost literally shapes our perception of reality. Until I knew the word schadenfreude, I couldn't access the idea of schadenfreude or identify its occurrence. Until I knew the word phobia, I could only say I was really, REALLY scared of the thing -- and that fell pretty short of reality.
If we had access to the vocabulary sets available in other languages and to the cultural implications of those languages, I think we'd all understand each other a whole hell of a lot better. We'd have more empathy and more awareness of the systems at work around us.
The implications here are, of course, farther reaching than a person like me could possibly anticipate (and would likely have some pretty terrible consequences), so it's probably a good thing I can't pop this into reality.
That being said -- maybe I'd just have everyone grow up bilingual!
EDIT and PS: Having a word for a thing legitimizes that thing. I bet depression could decrease too, if people could easily summarize and pin down what they're experiencing and observing!
Let me start off by saying I love your response. I completely agree. I have always wanted to learn another language. I have done my very best to learn German but have not done that great of a job. I would love to be able to see the world with new words and phrases to understand things. They do say communication is the most important part of a relationship. If this was applied to the bigger picture think of how much better we would get along with other countries and people from all over the world. How different would our relationship be? How different would our past, present and future be. This again can be applied to my personal response. Getting everyone to work for the greater good of humanity. Becoming one instead of many divided and fighting among ourselves. I truly wish that I was brought up bilingual. Even though I wasn't I will continue to work at learning more languages. Thank you for your response!
Good luck in your learnings! (Duolingo is a great, free tool for acquiring a foreign language.) And I completely agree -- foreign relations would improve exponentially without the misunderstandings that arise from language barriers!
I have used duolingo and it is a great way to learn! I'll keep on it.