The importance of knowing a 2nd language

My neighbor, Eli, is an intellectual philosopher. He also knows a lot about history and languages that I never studied. The value of knowing history is in learning the lessons of failure and success which can be applied in making our own assessments of current and future actions.

Eli says, "Language is a trick." As I have thought about this over almost a year since I met him, I think he is right. Words and phrases are, on a brain functioning level, a form of symbolism. That is, words and phrases call up concepts in our minds just as seeing a symbol we recognize causes us to imagine the meaning of the symbol. A prime example of language as a "trick" is when politicians tell us something to gain our vote using language to trick us into believing something which they could care less about except to trick us into gaining power for themselves. It seems the public forgets the history of political speech and falls for the trick most of the time.

There will be more on the trickery of American English later especially as it applies to Law, but for now here is Eli's fictional story of the value of understanding more than one language.

"There was a hungry mouse who stuck his nose out of his little hole in the wall. He smelled and then saw a nice little piece of cheese in the middle of a room. Just as the mouse was about to dash out and get the cheese, the mouse hear "Meow!" and scurried back into the wall. The mouse knew the cat might catch him.

"The next day the mouse smelled and saw a bigger piece of cheese. Just like the previous day he thought how much he wanted to eat it. Again, as he was about to dash to get the cheese he heard "Meow!" and kept back in safety. As much as he wanted that cheese he knew it could be his finish if the cat caught him.

"On the third day the mouse smelled the cheese and saw a huge piece in the middle of the room. The mouse waited and waited until he heard "Woof, woof!" The mouse thought to himself "that cat is afraid of the dog and is probably hiding someplace else. Thinking he was safe, the mouse rushed out and thwap!, the cat pounces, grabs the mouse and eats him.

"After eating the mouse, the cat turns to its kitten and says, "See, its always good to know a second language!"

We have two officially used languages in the American Nation . One is common every day English and the other is the language of Law. These two languages use the same spelling for the same sounding word. Unfortunately for most of us we are not aware many of the words used in Law mean something totally different than what we assume they mean in common usage. This is a "trick" of language and we are the victims of the the tricksters.

History, knowledge and critical thinking are being flushed from the consciousness of the American People. There is a reason for this. It happens gradually over generations so the "tricked" are unaware of the trick or how they became the victims. Sometimes this is known as the "boiling frog" syndrome.