Language is an incredibly powerful tool.

It can both empower and disempower a human being depending on how it's used.

That's also why language is such a barrier, one generally finds it incredibly difficult to truly express themselves properly, fully and succinctly unless they can fully grasp the language itself. It's a tricky skill too, most native speakers have difficulty expressing themselves in their own language and sometimes, it's just hard to find the words to explain what you feel... I get this alot. That's probably why often, when I look back at it my long posts could be a lot shorter if I just wrote more concisely, but I don't... I just say what comes to me without really planning or thinking back over what I've said before.

Language is a means of communication, and often people argue that if they can make themselves understood then in essence they've got the language down which isn't neccesarilly correct in my opinion because language is something you build on. You read everyday- it mightnt be you physically picking up a book but you read road symbols, tweets, maybe the odd newspaper article, letters and you encounter words everyday. If you read more challenging things you may come across new words everyday and build your vocabulary! More so in English, in terms of learning it as a foreign language our grammar is fairly simple and straightforward but we have the largest vocabulary of any language in the world (according to an English teach at one of the best unis in the world) and it's a bit of a joke to be honest, there's about 12 different ways to say the same thing and if you are doing say a speech or an exam you'll get penalised if you use the same word more than once or if you use a simple word like 'nice'. I was writing an essay that wasn't in English once and I was asking my friend other ways to say certain words and she was like ohhh, there isn't one you just say it like that, and it pained me to repeat myself, I like being able to express myself in various ways.

However, one shouldn't fall into the trap of thinking that just because some words have roughly the same meaning, they are the same. NO. In fact, what mainly inspired me to write this post was something I recieved that was poorly worded thus resulting in what the person said to have negative connotations even though it wasn't meant in that way (or at least I hope not). Big words and/or phrasing things a little differently are all well and good but only when you know how to do it correctly. Otherwise you can either look really silly and pretentious in trying to use big words and failing or, you end up offending someone by saying something you didn't neccesarily mean because you were too busy trying to look clever/different or you were experimenting with a new style of writing. - It's best to look at a word used in a sentence AND it's meaning before using it- don't just pull out a thesaurus because they don't always have direct synonyms and be careful with how you phrase things. Otherwise, your words can be used against you by either hurting someone or yourself. It's a lawyer/journalists favrioute trick, they won't change what you said at all, they'll just give it a new meaning if you've been careless with your phrasing. Well, a good journalist would anyways, bad journalists just cut certain things out so it makes an entirely new interview. But that's besides the point... back to language itself.

It's sad that if someone speaks a diferent language from you, you can't communicate properly with that person because they've been brought up in a different place from you -unless one of you learns how to communicate to them in their mothertounge...  It seems as though when you can't find the words, the body speaks, either the eyes or the body, weird isn't it? And it's also really strange how language is affected by culture and where you are in the world, they'll be similarities and differences which can be seen through how people communicate with one another and I find it all so fascinating. Different people, different languages different cultures but in the end we're all one race- the human race and we unite and divide constantly under the huge umbrella of the world. That's why I love to get to know different cultures be it through meeting different people, music, food, travelling to  experience it firsthand. 

Sometimes I just feel like to go away to somewhere beautiful where I don't have any worries and I don't have to think of anything. I can just take in nature or my new sorroundings and breathe.

Like they say, "Not all those who wonder are lost.".

-Love always,

Dalanda

http://ask.fm/dee2504
If you want to share opinions on this or ask/tell me anything, you can do it on my ask. :-)