Tongue

Peace.

I liked my life whenever I have ever been a student. Learning has always given my life direction. Because of that I consider myself a life long learner. I say ‘learner’ and not ‘student’ because I often become an unofficial student. You don’t necessarily have to be registered in a course at a school to take on a curriculum.

I feel sorry for people who don’t have “hobbies.” I see hobbies as a way of relaxing in pure enjoyment. You either get to be alone or surrounded by like minded people in a good mood doing something they love. Hobbies are useful as long as you see it that way. I sew, I read, I garden, I cook and I love them. But I don’t do any of that for money. I do it because I enjoy it. I could sew, landscape and cook for money, but then I would have to consider all the other things that I would have to do to make the venture profitable and I would no longer enjoy it. When I was a child and began sewing, as soon as I was proficient, my mother started taking in alterations. Alterations isn’t garment creation. Far from it. I HATED doing that kind of work. It almost made me quit sewing. Not every hobby needs to generate income. It’s alright to do something you love, because you love it. I’m not saying don’t seek employment in an area that you love and excel in. But that’s not the end all to be all.

I also like to learn things that although may be interesting to me, but probably won’t serve a useful purpose to most people. That’s alright for many reasons. Just because one person doesn’t find the information I find useful, doesn’t mean it isn’t. That implies that usefulness is determined externally. It isn’t. I have been taking classes in midwifery. Lots of people find that course of study useless, but ask the woman in her car... in labor… in traffic… if my certificate is useless.

I have wanted to learn a foreign language for a few years now. I could never settle on which language to learn. I took Spanish and French in school but never became proficient in either. I can sing the French National Anthem and I have a slight fluency in Espanol. 15 years ago I worked in a dental clinic where almost 50% of the patients where Spanish speaking patients. The other 50% where Arabic speaking patients. There where Arabic speaking doctors employed at the clinic so they took all those patients but what do we do about the Spanish ones? We had Spanish speakers employed at the clinic but the patients were told to bring translators which were usually their children pulled out of school. The Spanish speaking staff was not allowed to translate for them. The theory behind that rule was that if they knew there were people who would translate, then they wouldn’t bring their own.

What do you do if you have a patient sitting in your chair, sans a translator looking at you? You start picking up phrases. I got good enough to converse with my patients about their dental needs and even became conversational outside the clinic. The staff seemed impressed that I was willing to learn their language and taught me a bunch of words and when it was appropriate to use them. And the staff was from all over South America. I learned that Spanish is different to people from Puerto Rico to Mexico to Peru etc. When I left that job and moved out of state I lost a lot of it. But it was easy to pick up because it was still in there, just dusty. I knew a lot of words and was good on conjugating verb so it was just a matter of learning new words. I was on a roll too. Until….

I did the knowledge to Spain… the mother tongue of Spanish. Somehow, someway, it had slipped my mind that Spanish was no more an “Original” language than English was. When I think of the Spanish people I come in contact with every day, they aren’t Spaniards. The are Brown people form South America. I had forgotten. I did the Knowledge to the history of South American countries and was met with the brutality of Spanish colonization. I don’t want another slaveholders tongue in my mouth. Bye bye Spanish…..

Since then I have been looking for another language to learn. Asian languages are to hard and write in characters. That’s 2 new things to learn. The language and the writing style. I haven’t come to terms with how I feel about Hindus. Don’t judge me. Yes they are Original, but many of them have sold out. There are SEVERAL dialects to choose within that language. And that is true with most African languages. Arabic and Hebrew are associated with spooky religions. I don’t want that either. So far…. Amharic and Swahili are languages I am willing to investigate.

Why Amharic language when I just said I didn’t like Arabic or Hebrew. If you do the Knowledge to Amharic (and I’m not even sure that that is the correct name to call it, but it comes up when you Google it) it is in the same family (Semitic) as Arabic and Hebrew. It is a language of Ethiopia. Ethiopia is the only country in Africa and the world to never fall victim to devil colonization. It is the only pure and untouched place on this planet. Original people should treasure it as the Jews and Fundamentalist Christians treasure Israel. But... it might be hard to find a proper teacher and the written language is in Ge'ez, another character written words. I don't think I want to learn Ge'ez. So I will be able to speak it but not read and write it.

Ethiopia also falls in what our degrees call the “Root of Civilization.” If you consider plate tectonics and what the planet looked like a millennia ago, Ethiopia/Cush, India and Egypt/Kemet where all in the same locale. Squished up against each other. One could say it was the same country. So considering that this tongue is as Original as we can find where people are still speaking it, and in the prime Original location. I’ll take it!

Swahili is another contender. It’s more West African. And even though as an American Black person, I will Never be sure of where my family originates in Africa…. I’m assuming it would be on the west side. But Swahili speakers fall into the category of people who have been indoctrinated with the devil’s Culture. I’m not sure how I feel about that. I have also read that Swahili might be one of the oldest languages still spoken. And it's written in the Latin characters that we already know. So I'd be able to read and write Swahili.

A friend of mine (whose motivations I question) asked me why I would “waste my time” learning something so obscure. Why not learn Spanish so I can interact with the people on Beaufort Highway? For me everything isn’t financially motivated. I recognize that money has its place, but my personal satisfaction is equally as important. I seek to balance the two. If I never learned another non-English word, I’d have what I have now; since I don’t speak another language at the time of this present writing. My money won’t be compromised. So why not learn something for the joy of learning?


Peace