Bella Response to Bumble on De Saussure

Bumble, You are speaking my language. (Pardon the pun). Language fascinates me, as well. I have been studying Spanish since I was 13, and have come to pretty darn close to fluency by this point. It still blows me away every time I meet someone new and am able to communicate with them in their language. Just last week in my taxi ride for Orlando International, I was sitting in the back talking with a man who survived the Coup in Chile, lived as a refugee in Argentina, homeless, with small children, no money, and with no hope. Today, he’s here in Orlando and both of his children are doctors. Hearing his story made me appreciate my communication skills and my understanding of his culture. Without my language skills I wouldn’t have been able to talk to him, but without an understanding of the history of Chile, I would have had no appreciation for what he was talking about! De Saussure talks about using our past knowledge to understand the world we live in and having something to compare it to, and I would totally agree. When Antonio was finished I immediately tried to find some horrible story I could relate his to, or show him some way of understanding. You said, “It is almost impossible to understand something without our history of things to compare it too.” I have and appreciate my understanding of history, but I always have to find some way to relate to him. Sitting with Antonio in the car also made me realize how much I hate awkward silences. The whole reason I began conversation with him was because I couldn’t stand the idea of a 25 minute taxi ride without speaking to the man driving me. I cannot stand have silence between another and myself. Maybe society has conditioned me to find silence inappropriate in some way? You said, “it will force me to think of unique ways of describing things as opposed to relating it to past experiences. Each word has a value, and I want to learn how to master the use of the value, how can I analyze what each word is worth and what it symbolizes? Also, do words mean the same thing to me as they do to others?” Each word has a value. I often forget it and say things that have absolutely no importance whatsoever, but it’s true. Every word does have it’s own value, and could mean different things to different people. You described how certain cultural symbols and non-verbal forms of communication are interpreted cross-culturally–it’s so true. It’s crucially important in our globalized society to learn, appreciate, and understand that English is not a universal language, that signs are interpreted differently in different nations and that the world we live in is steadily changing.