the wonder of language

being the tech-phobe that i am, i was convinced that this blog-shlog is not my cup of tea. i have surprised myself and s by jumping onto the blog-bandwagon and giving it a shot. thanks to g for cajoling me into it, and for the fact that as of now i am not exactly subject to the pressing demands of gainful employment!

with all the thoughts that inundated my mind earlier, i now am unable to pick one! (a long pause). oh yes...the 1st thought that surfaces is to do with the process of learning a new language. what makes it so much fun is that one returns to the state of a child learning langugage for the 1st time. the sound of each word is foreign and fascinating. it is a symbol, that over time, becomes the object it symbolies. the piecing together of the pronunciation of the word, its spelling and its meaning is a slow, halting process. once this whole has been cnstructed, it is sheer joy to recall it when encountering the specific object. while walking on the street, when i see a tree and then, after a mental search, find "tree = arbre", i am filled with a childish joy. this small pleasure is not so much for having absorbed something i didn't know before, but for the recognition of the plurality of God's world. for the realisation that a thousand words can stand for the same object. in this sense, language becomes a vehicle thru which this plurality is revealed to us. one takes for granted the role of language in human communication. . rge with each other to form ether 's already familiar: the colour black. as i stored (& continue to store) every word in my mind, i a each time i encounter the object/process it symbolises.