Speak Quechua in Spain—"A different language is a different version of life": Federico Fellini

A mystery.  A ghost.  A phantom figure always in the corner of the room who occasionally produced tortillas - la abuelita Lucy.

I had been married to my wife for 5 years and her grandmother was the only member of her family who didn't speak any English at all.  Even though we spent time together almost daily, abuelita Lucy to me was a stranger, and honestly, I never gave it a second thought.

After a huge life change, a move to Bolivia and the learning of some español, my wife and I returned home on vacation, and I remember instinctively starting up a conversation in Spanish with abuelita Lucy in the kitchen.  It just happened, and after several minutes of perceiving her spunky, very real personality for the first time, I blurted out, "You're like a real person!".

In that moment I realized that only a certain kind of linguistical and cultural arrogance could ever have made me feel, even subconsciously, otherwise.

Like two deaf people who suddenly can hear or two blind ones who miraculously can see, the idea that you could be missing out on years of one's history, experiences, wisdom, opinions, culture and love just because of the language we speak, immediately became and still is astonishing to me.

Language is both a bridge and a chasm between two mentors, two friends or two lovers.  Each person we pass, each foreigner we see—They're like a real person.

He's like a real person.

In addition to the individual connections I've made along the way, I feel like my learning Spanish has made me a part of "the club".

Frank Smith, who received his PhD in Psycholinguistics from Harvard University, is quoted as saying: 

"Language is not a genetic gift, it is a social gift.  Learning a new language is becoming a member of the club - the community of speakers of that language".

I must digress that I do disagree with the good doctor in that it does appear that language is a genetic gift as well.

Karl Sabbagh, a known evolutionist, admitted in his book, The Living Body:

"Language is the crucial difference between humans and animals... [it] is not just a trivial improvement on other animals’ abilities to make noises​—it is the fundamental property that makes humans human, and it is reflected in major differences in brain structure.”

This is because just one neuron in the human brain has the genetic ability to make connections with over 100,000 others, and as such, the total number of possible neural connections is considered by scientists to be in reality infinite - no exaggeration.

This 'genetic gift' is what makes it possible for humans to learn not just one language, but multiple, and thus gain access to multiple 'clubs'.

Each 'club' or 'community of speakers' has its own unique culture with its traditions, beliefs, history, way of perceiving the world and being perceived by the world, and it's language that gets your name on the list.

Robert Lado, considered one of the founders of modern contrastive linguistics, stated, "There can be no real learning of a language without understanding something of the patterns and values of the culture of which it is a part".

For example, there is now a sort of "scientific" evidence that Spanish is the happiest language in the world, and the connection between the Spanish language and the Hispanic culture, to that happy end, is fascinating.

It's no wonder then that Hispanics are proud of both their culture and their language.  Pew Research reports that 79 percent of all U.S. Latinos say it is very/extremely important that future generations be able to speak Spanish, and 54 percent of U.S. Latinos who don't speak Spanish say that another Latino has made them feel bad about it. 

And despite the fact that 65 percent of third generation or higher U.S. Latinos say that they cannot even carry on a conversation in Spanish, 25 percent of all U.S. Latinos go as far to say that a person must be able to speak Spanish to be considered Hispanic.

Language and culture are certainly intertwined.

This is not to say that there is no learning curve in regards to learning a new language and then a new culture, or vice versa.

The book, Cross-​Cultural Learning & Self-​Growth, by Mildred Sikkema and Agnes Niyekawa-​Howard, tells of an American professor who would tell all of his new foreign students a joke. If they didn't laugh, he would send them off right away to ESL classes.  Ouch!

What he failed to take into account is that it does take at least some time for a new language learner to learn a new culture, and also, what one culture considers funny may not be funny at all to another.

Consider the import of the words of Milovan Djilas, a writer from the former Yugoslavia:

“A man can abandon everything​—home, country, land—​but he cannot abandon himself".

Love of others can lead to a willingness to learn another language and see the superior aspects of another culture.  But as we learn from that which is different, we don't discard the good that made us who we are and that which we might also humbly teach another.  A disparaging joke, for example, that is commonly funny in a certain culture might never be considered funny by a foreigner, even if he has left his home and become fluent in both that new language and culture.

Ultimately, there can be no doubt that mutual love begs for mutual interest in and appreciation for the variety of life. 

It has been said that variety is the spice of life.  If so, an endless number of languages, foods, cultures and yes, connections in the brain, has to make you at least wonder if variety could be the spice of endless life, endless opportunities to love, learn and be loved in return.

Federico Fellini, an Italian filmmaker once said, "A different language is a different version of life".  It makes me think...

If we only had the time

If only the skill

To walk in that many shoes

Never a moment to kill, 

We'd live life to the fullest

To our everlasting fame.

We'd drink wine in the mountains,

Speak Quechua in Spain.