Bienvenidos. Bienvenue. Baruch haba. Aloha mai. Yo koso. Willkommen. Welcome. Welcome to my first official blog post, “The Limitation of Language.” Currently, in my Senior English class, we are reading The Poisonwood Bible, a novel written by Barbara Kingsolver. As the Price family from Georgia embarks on a mission with their Reverend of a father in the Congo, they soon learn that something as simple as speaking has a big affect on how easily they are able to get by from day to day.
Speaking the language native to the place you are in is something that many people take for granted on a daily basis. If you need something, you ask for it. It’s a fairly simple concept. But, what if you asked for something and nobody knew what you were saying? What would you do then? The Price family encounters this limitation of language every day in the Congo. Soon after their arrival, a miscommunication causes the Reverend to spend his first few days of the mission laying in bed, poisoned by a native plant. The mother also discovers that the native woman sent to help them, Mama Tataba, has been insulting them without their knowledge by simply using her native tongue. Kingslover writes, “Fufu nsala, Mama Tataba called us. I gathered this had to do with fufu, the food stable, not yet knowing Kikongo is a language that is not exactly spoken but sung. The same word slanted up or down the scale can have many different meanings…Fufu nsala is a forest-dwelling, red-headed rat that runs from sunlight” (94).
These are just a few of the many challenges and miscommunications that the Prices face in the Congo due to the language barrier. Language can be one of the most helpful tools you can use to express yourself, but it can also be a limitation if you can’t communicate your thoughts and ideas to others. Being able to clearly communicate with others isn’t always easy, even if the language being spoken isn’t the problem. Expressing yourself can be one of the most difficult things to do, but recognizing this difficulty can help you work towards overcoming the limitation of language. Recognizing that language is a useful but tricky device is an important step to controlling this limitation because with this recognition you can be aware that every word you say or nonverbal message that you convey counts and that you should choose carefully.
One example that comes to mind when I read this is that right now, as we speak, we are running into the same problem in Iraq and Afghanistan. Right now huge problems are being run into because translators cannot speak the languages necesary atleast to the degreee necesary. So misscommunication is rampant and is throwing our armed forces off with incorrect intel. This proves to be very detrimental because without proper intel we cannot plan for attacks or defense at certain positions and are completely unprepared or in other words, flying blind. This innability to translate what is being said by locals puts out armed forces at great risk and in turn can lead to bad decisions with costly consequences. This parallels what you said above I feel and helps show that communication is a major bridge that has to be crossed in order for things to flow smoothly, whether in war or peace. Communication is essential to survival.
ReplyDeletep.s. sorry for any spelling errors. its late =]