Now Speaking...

So, I love foreign languages.
It was actually my fourth passion, after guitarz, women, and God, in varying orders since high school.
One of the most interesting things about languages to me is that we think in terms of language, at least a large part of the time.
Do I think of the image of coffee when I smell coffee, or do I think, "Mmmm... coffee!"?
Part of that depends on our brain dispositions. The whole left brain/right brain and all that jazz.
But, to a certain extent, many of the deeper thoughts of human emotion and insight are quite impossible without words to express and represent our thoughts.
To that extent, our vocabulary is the limit of our universe.
Can you think of an image of something which you don't have a name for?
You might be able to, after some serious thought, but for the most part we have to label everything we interpret with our senses with a word.
So, in that sense, it creates a large barrier between us and those who speak a different language naturally, because their language focuses on different words and different patterns of thought.
For instance, Americans tend to be more direct and straight-forward in our language. We say things like "Let's go to the movies!" or "Please give me a soda." In an imperative sentence, a command, we assert that we have the right to ask something of someone else. Our language speaks a lot about our culture.
Now, I speak a very slight amount of Japanese. This is a very interesting language to me because it comes from a very old, very different culture. The Japanese, in case you didn't know, are very polite, with the exception of the current generation which is becoming very Americanized.
VERY polite.
They love their personal space and go to great lengths to respect others, even if it's only a matter of formality, because the culture dictates that they do so. The Chinese are fairly similar.
But this appears in Japanese language, as well.
If you asked someone, "Hey, let's go to the movies" in Japan, they might sarcastically reply, "Oh and do you want me to kill all of your enemies and rub your feet while I'm at it?!"
Well, okay, they probably wouldn't.
But they use the passive voice as a much more direct device than we do, which as many of you know is a serious NO-NO in English writing.
They would say, "Would it be nice to be attended at the movies this Friday?" or, "It would be wonderful if I were given a soda by you."
Sounds, weird, right?
But it's funny how little such language and cultural barriers affect personalities as a whole.
In every land and every tongue there are still cruel- and kind-hearted people, generous and stingy, hasty and patient.
It seems that language is more of a tool of our natures than what defines it.
Culture is just a shell.
Foreign languages are awesome, though. Especially if you learn romantic phrases to make your girlfriend smile.