Yagouba Diallo

Language, an underestimated power that people including myself come across every day that provides a sense of independence. Language is the concept of communication that we all use whether it is speech, gesture, or sign language. Language is a very important concept in life because without it then there will be no communication. I remember when I was once in elementary school we used to take one on one reading assessments with the teacher to see where our reading level was. At the time I hated reading so when it was time for those assessments, I’ll go and take it and my results will still be at the same reading level. I started to feel disappointed in myself because all my other classmates were leveling up and I wasn’t. So my parents began forcing me to read every night after my teacher notified them of the situation. Soon I realized my problem in reading was due to the type of literature I was reading and not reading per se. I was more interested in mystery books and thrillers.

As I kept reading and reading every night until my reading skills began to go up, I was improving. For a moment, I had doubted myself but soon after, I was proud of the person I was becoming. So when it comes to the language you’re the one in control. There was another time when I was in Africa on vacation. My younger cousins will speak to me in English even though that’s not their primary language but they will learn English in school. When they speak to me in English and I respond back they

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will try to find a difference in the way my sentence sounded and the way their sentence sounded and ask me why it sounded different and what they were saying wrong. This is how they got better with their grammar throughout the time I was there. They really enjoyed learning English and were eager to become better at it. This also brought us closer together as well because we will sometimes laugh about it and make jokes but they were having fun learning the English language.

Language doesn’t have to be spoken. It could be texting, it could be communicating through a board game, or it could be sending letters. During my middle school years, the dean would play chess with students who are going through a hard time in school that day and just want a place to clear their heads and talk to someone. As he plays chess with you he’ll converse with you and ask what’s going on and he’ll give you advice to better your day. Now, these one on one talks were for about half an hour but they really helped many students calm down if they were to get into a fight or maybe they were just having a bad day. So Chess was his way of communicating and building connections with the students. This shows that language doesn’t have to be verbal but it also shows how powerful and how far language can go.

In my life, language makes me feel independent because it shows to the world a part of who I am. It makes me feel independent because when it comes to the language I’m able

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to use it in multiple different ways. I speak three languages; English, Spanish, and my country’s language which is Fulani. Most of the time when I tell people I speak Spanish they are usually surprised because everyone knows I’m not Hispanic for one, and I don’t look like a Spanish speaker. I started learning Spanish in daycare because my babysitters were Hispanic and they would usually speak it a lot. As I was going there for years and years I was learning the language along the way and it became so fluent for me. By the time I was 10, I was a fluent Spanish speaker. Everywhere I went, people would be surprised that I knew how to speak Spanish at a young age and it’s not even my primary language. This is significant because it not only shows the power of language but it also shows the influence language has.

Language plays a huge role in the way we live. We use language every day to argue, motivate, persuade, influence, love, etc. Without language how would society be? We may not notice but the world revolves around language. As the world gets more and more advanced, language is also becoming advanced. Today you can communicate with anyone in so many different ways no matter where in the world they are. Not only is language a key concept in our life but isn’t it also part of our identity. Language is definitely part of our identity because you can sort of characterize someone by the way they speak, or their accent. As for me, I know language is part of my identity because when

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I speak, I speak with respect and I have respect for everyone. So Language is this powerful concept that is part of our identity, community, and society that brings a kind of purpose to our everyday life.

In my journey of enhancing my communication skills, one fact that has downed to me is that language has immense power; it all depends entirely on how we wield it. The words that a person uses to convey information are powerful to create a movement, excitements, vision and in worst cases, incitements. In most cases, people, including myself tend to treat the words that we use lightly without much thought about them; this is because words are often automatic and spring from our subconscious mind. In other cases, the words that we use are from habit, convenience, and social obligation rather than a clear intent. As a multilingual individual, often, the words I choose to communicate are subject to social obligation and habit; my common goal is rooted in communicating with the social group I am interacting with.

To further understand the power of language, I researched how language in the past has been used as a tool of power to influence, persuade or motivate. In numerous instances, language and in particular, the choice of words used has been used as a tool of creating and influencing change in society. For instance, dictators, power-hungry tyrants tend to have mastered the art of communication, that is, the right choice of words to spread their ideologies, gain massive support and adoration from the public as well as instill fear among their subjects. The ability to influence the mass and instill fear

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shows the power language can have as a means of communication.

Among the influential political orators that have proven language as a powerful tool of communication are Malcolm X and former president of the U.S Barack Hussein Obama. Analyzing their speeches, I realized that a language is a powerful tool of communication they leveraged to gain support and adoration from the masses. In particular, I could not help but notice; the two political orators carefully selected the words they used to communicate. As such, their influence was anchored to their choice of words, which had intent; he consciously chose the words.

In 2008, President Barack Obama gave a speech, emphasizing words do matter in inspiring America in the right political direction. This speech helped him gain voters in Wisconsin, which is a critical regional determinant in the presidential election. As I listened to this speech, the president constantly used the word ‘I’ and ‘we’ which are commonly used words by English speakers. However, the manner in which the president used these words triggered feelings; it brought a feeling of cohesiveness among the public. As I listened to his speech, I felt inspired as the words resonated with me in a different manner.

Malcon X was an influential political orator who moved masses to fight for human rights among African Americans. As I researched his story, I could not help but feel we share similar factors. For instance, just like me, he had trouble with his reading and writing skills and it is inspiring that he improved these skills while in jail. Even though he was a good orator, his reading and writing skills posed a

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threat to his mission. While in jail he read numerous books including dictionaries. Over and over, aloud, to myself, I read my own handwriting.

Iwokeupthenextmorning,thinkingaboutthosewords—immensely 15 proud to realize that not only had I written so much at one time, but I’d written words that I never knew were in the world (X). Malcolm X further indicated that, after he learned the power of language in both writing and verbal, he found power to influence masses both at local and international grounds. Analyzing these two political orators, it is evident that language and conscious selection of words has the potential to create and transform our lives. It is my objective to continuously enhance my communication skills especially by being conscious of the words that I choose to communicate.

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