Human's Linguistic Skills

It's not a simple, straightforward process. It's fundamental to the human nature and the fact that it is an unconscious act, I believe, doesn't make this act of speaking an incredibly easy one; rather, speaking and more so, speaking in different dialects and languages involve an incredibly complex set of mental processes. I think that it is just like transitioning from Java to Matlab to IDL to C++, all the different computer languages with entirely different sets of rules, instructions, and libraries (given that there may be some similarities).

As I ponder on a human's ability to communicate and to communicate in such varied ways, I feel amazed by the power of mind and consequently with the potency of its Creator. I have been trying to learn a new language, Farsi, which is to say that I am making my mind memorize a new set of rules of speech, and a new library of words, and to get used to of its dialect.

I had never thought of how I speak until this day; I just took it for granted. Today, as I was battling my solitude and gathering my thoughts to begin working on my next homework assignment, I decided to take new language lessons for a few minutes. I began reading the language book but then I paused and began reflecting on the operation of the brain.

For the languages that I already know and speak, the speech processing goes on so fast in my mind that I am able to utter sentences, after carefully thinking about them off course nearly simultaneously, in the order of just a couple seconds. It is amazing that when I want to say a word, I think about it, collect the words from my memory to put the thought into a sentence form, then instruct my mouth, tongue, jaw muscles, vocal cord, and all the supporting muscles to generate just the right movement to deliver the accurate, thought out message, and finally keep my ears on alert so that the brain could ensure through the analysis of sound's input to the ear that the message has been efficiently rendered.

Imagine, all of this process happening every second that we speak and still we don't try to estimate its value and just take it for granted. It was not until analyzing the process of programming my PC for executing necessary simulations that I was able to understand how systematically our mind functions. It is amazing to me how I can transition from Urdu to English almost instantly and and not stutter.

And once I introduce another language to the my mind's memory bank, I would have access to a whole new set of grammar rules, colloquial speech informal rules, basic and advanced vocabulary and so much more at my disposal, which I will be able to use swiftly to convey my thoughts by a different set of lips, tongue, and vocal cord movements to talk to an entirely different nation of people and to access an entire world of literature, written by past scholar of that language, which was hidden from me until I didn't know the language. There is already so much excitement for me to learn a new language, or to teach my mind a new set of instructions.

I am increasingly thankful to my Creator for creating me so fundamentally flawless in the act of speech, so that I can use this ability of mine to broaden my intellect and to carry out the logical analysis that human mind has been made for.