Language, via “la parole” is what makes us be what we are: human, as opposed to animal. The faculty to convey, via words, whatever we have in our mind is proper to human beings. Therefore, learning a language is more than just an optional act of leisure or self satisfaction, or at least, it should be regarded as more than just that.
A Language serves a purpose. It helps us describe what’s inside of us. It helps me communicate to you what I am feeling, what I am thinking or what I want to convey. So in understanding that we have to realise that what’s important is not the language, but what it is I want to convey. It starts with having a feeling, a message and an emotion. And the language helps us convey that.
We all know that many conflicts arise because of “differences”. Those differences are various: race, place of birth, physical features, religion, etc… But whatever the reason, it can always, or should I say, often be overseen if you speak the language of the others. Obama easily got the support of the Latinos when he started talking to them in Spanish at a conference during his presidential campaign. Likewise, I was embraced by the locals when I started talking Slovak during my first visit of the country. My Slovak language knowledge is basic, but the simple fact of trying to speak it got me closer to the people.
Spies use the knowledge of foreign languages to survive in their environment. How? When you speak the same language as the rest, you become part of the people. It’s like wearing the same uniform as them. You can survive if you know how to say the right word or to understand what is being said about you. But most of, all you can laugh with others. It’s very frustrating when everyone is laughing about a joke that you haven’t understood, simply because it was in a language you do not speak.
Communication is the key to human development, to understand each other, to trade with each other, to laugh with each other, to cry with each other, to love each other, to hate each other too, in some instances. Language is a powerful tool, because it uses the hardest bullets that human beings know: Words. The power of thank you, sorry, je t’aime, ich liebe dich, gracias, don’t worry about it, te odio, etc… can exceed that of a shot gun.
Similarly, music is a language. Music, to me, does exactly the same thing as languages do. So that means that the most important thing is to have something to say, some message to convey. The method that we use or the instruments that we use to convey that message are secondary. We simply need something to say.
Music does not use words, but notes. Its emotions are called mood. When playing in a band, you need to listen to the others in order to play in harmony. You do the same when having a conversation: you listen and interact appropriately. If you are asked a question, you will answer that question, in many ways you want, through parabola, metaphor, directly, amusingly or wrongly. The same way an orator can move an audience through his words, a musician can move an audience through the notes of he plays. That’s why some instrumental music, where no singing is involved, still can make you feel happy, sad, sorrow, angry, calm, hyperactive, etc…
Languages and music have been evolving side by side, just like animals and plants. In some instances, music has changed the language: Jazz, Funk, Rap, R&B. They have triggered the development of new vocabulary or new meaning to existing words, such as “scat”, “groovy”, “hot”, “MC”, “beatbox”, "bridge".
In a nutshell, learning to speak as many languages as you possibly can and learning to play as many musical instruments as you possibly can will endow with you with great power…to use wisely.
