My art of communication

As humans, we yearn for communication. We find or create ways to interact with one another. At times, certain new words or phrases are coined or accepted into our respective languages. Why? Because certain things could not be expressed in any other way before. Although a majority of my friends and colleagues have heard this familiar rant before, I do wish to share it with whomever is reading due to the fact that language and the human need to hear and be heard is such a strong desire. 

As you all know, I'm a language fiend. I try to learn different languages, at the moment languages covered: English, Spanish, German, and Portuguese. One afternoon I sat down and thought about how much I had changed from being that four year old child with hopes of being a doctor to, at that moment, the young woman working on completing her Spanish interpreting degree. In high school I noticed how my "dreams" of being a neurosurgeon were based on what the world contrives for most to be: some mogul with money. Yes, frankly neurosurgery does still fascinate me and I can watch surgery for hours, but it wasn't something I deeply and honestly loved. 

Sorry for that tangent, but that's what was going through my mind right before I came to this stream of thoughts. What are words? Words are letters strung up together to create a label to identify a thing, whether it be an object, a thought, an emotion, a description, the list can go on. And letters? What are letters? Well they are characters that have a sound in relation to them. Sounds are basically just noise, different noises that a human's mouth can make. Now, this is where it comes together. 

Humans were created with the need to have relationships among themselves. We have given all these sounds character names, put them into something called an alphabet in order to put those characters in different orders to create labels for everything and anything in life. Not only that but in countries, they have the some objects, feelings, ideas, descriptions, nouns, etc. But they put the same characters (and some added ones depending on the language) with their sounds into different orders to create a label for those same objects. 

We all have the mental ability and capability to learn different languages in order to communicate, to understand, and to be understood. When I finally acknowledged this, I understood why I had decided to accept CSULB's invitation instead of going to USC or to any other school I was accepted into. They had the best when it came to a Spanish major with an option in interpreting and translating. And I wanted to help others to understand what a judge or a doctor was telling them. It's such a gratifying job. It's something I am passionate about and dedicated four years of my life to, at least in the case of the English and Spanish languages, know not just the rules but the reasoning behind it all in order to interpret and translate at the utmost level. 

" We ♥ LB!" - some of the Spanish Interpreting girls
and me (LB)