Recommended Reading
Words are just words and don’t amount to much;
They can only create description, but in doing such
They justify themselves and therein lies their beauty -
Which I believe is words’ number one duty.
Language is not merely a convenient tool
(Though it may be used as such by any old fool)
But a blank canvass awaiting inspiration;
The purest form of artistic creation
Because all you need are a tongue and a brain
And no two people’s are ever quite the same.
Words can break your heart, or they can make your day,
They can be a weapon, or make you laugh your problems away,
Poets can move you to tears with their celestial verse
And maybe witches and gypsies really can use words to curse.
The best gift imaginable is to say ‘I love you and no other,’
For nothing is more precious than the sweet whispers of a lover.
Speeches can inspire war or political revolution.
Language has been the essential tool in our species’ evolution.
I believe that in expressing yourself with words,
Individual and collective consciousnesses merge;
Mixing slang and words you make up on the spot
With age old phrases of which the origin is forgot
To create a meaning specific to your personal view
But which others can understand and tell you theirs too,
That is, of course, assuming a common language is shared
And if there is not, many are completely unprepared;
They try to speak slowly, as if talking to a baby
And don’t want to consider the fact that, just maybe,
English and England are not the smartest and best,
That there is beauty and genius in each of the rest.
Every language carries with it the soul of its nation,
But the richness of meaning is lost in translation.
People build barriers because they don’t want to understand
That all people are one, regardless of homeland,
For the unknown is different and to some can seem scary
But for those of us who are more curious than wary
It is an opportunity to communicate in a whole new way
And it is wonderfully humbling to put your hands up and say
That you don’t understand yet but you are willing to learn
And that, of course, you are willing to teach in return.
In sharing our worlds, we create yet another
One in which we all benefit from the cultures of each other.
It is only then, while teaching others seemingly obvious words
That you realise the English language is entirely absurd;
That flammable means inflammable and flammability is the noun,
That you fill out to fill in, beat up to knock down,
And knock up has a different meaning altogether,
English grammar is as unpredictable as English weather!
A teacher teaches and in the past she taught
A preacher preaches but does that mean he praught?
How do we know all this and how can we begin to explain it?
Language is an evolving, living creature and it’s hard to tame it,
For there are a million exceptions to every so-called rule
And stressing the wrong syllable makes you sound a complete fool.
Your mother tongue comes so naturally, you assume it’s normal
And forget that the creation of speech was not formal,
There was no Ms Mother Tongue who had the genius thought
That each and every abstract concept should be caught
And captured, locked away in the sounds of a word
As a cage to structure the wildness of an invisible bird,
And yet, here we are, with languages so complicated
That an intelligent grown up can become very frustrated
Trying to learn new grammar, new words and new ABCs
And seeing native 4 year olds already use them with ease.
However the satisfaction of success is so great and so pure
That you hardly remember all the hardship you had to endure.
I love being able to have non-English conversations
And I love getting access to the secrets of nations,
Because all that is important; literature, proverbs and puns,
When translated becomes literal, loses its genius and fun..
My aim was to give you a peek into my mind
This is why I chose to write the whole essay in rhyme,
To show what linguistics really means to me;
It is art, it is life, the miraculous power of poetry.
