Talk is Cheap
the tempest caused by the ownership of language
the struggle of explaining all of this
Whenever I’m at my apartment doing something for school, like I am now, I’m probably also teaching my two roommates some word in English. Since it has barely been a month since they’ve moved to the U.S., simple conversations about what I’m doing now – writing a blog for humanities late at night because I procrastinated – require the teaching of new English words.
It’s not that they are stupid; both of them are quite smart and ambitious to be studying in a foreign country. They know what language is and can explain it in their native language, they simply do not understand English. I would have just as much difficulty, if not more, living in Japan or China as they are while studying at UCI.
In the colonial perspective written in Shakespeare’s The Tempest, this empathy for the foreigner does not exist; rather, the colonizer assumes the foreigner does not know the concept of language. Language is portrayed as an exclusive innovation for the ‘civilized’, and must be taught to the savage.
Of course, this isn’t true. Just because someone doesn’t speak your language does not mean that he/she is incapable of language itself. Cesaire sees this and introduces Caliban using his native language, a language that is not recognized by Prospero as a language but as a barbaric grunts -- a symptom of Caliban’s madness and hatred to Prospero. Prospero detests this speech of Caliban in Cesaire’s A Tempest, and threatens him when Caliban continues to speak like this.
Considering these two texts, we’re presented with two questions: Is language an inherent part of being human? How do we exercise empathy and communicate to those who do not know our own language?
Can language be owned
Have you ever met someone who did not have language?
Whether a person is foreign, deaf, blind, suffers from mental illness, or some combination of such states, language perseveres, albeit not in the form we may be familiar with. I’m not equating being foreign to having a disability; rather, both are the hands that mold - not restrict - language in a more abstract sense of communication itself. In short, language takes form given the state of a person. In the same way I’m able to convey the meaning of english words to my international roommates through the use of a more universal language (imagery), dead and blind people find communication sign language and braille. Children, even just after birth, are able to communicate needs through crying and joy through smiling, and no one needs to teach us what crying or smiling means.
Noam Chomsky, an American linguist and cognitive science tackles the position of language in humanity.
"When we study human language, we are approaching what some might call the 'human essence': the distinctive qualities of mind that are, so far as we know, unique to man and that are inseparable from any critical phase of human existence, personal or social"
Noam Chomsky
So not only is language inseparable from being human, it is also what makes humans distinct from all other animals. To take away language from a person is to take away humanity.
So when we see that Prospero gives Caliban language in Shakespeare’s The Tempest, it is saying that Caliban, before this gifting, is not human while Prospero is this amazing person who has the power to bestow humanity, via language, to other people.
But Caliban is human.
My roommates are human.
talking to aliens
This is where this lack of empathy comes in. The colonizer asserts dominance, and within this assertion argues that empire’s language is the only language. Anything else is subhuman. ​
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This attitude is the source of so much suffering in the world. From the stereotypes we project on different ethnicities to the political strife in the international arena, the emphasis of language being owned and enforced on others makes it difficult to communicate without obstruction. This is because of all the baggage that is carried in language as a spoken and written form. Italian philosopher Umberto Eco recognizes adversity:
Translation is always a shift not between two languages but between two cultures."
Umberto Eco
Living with international students in a multicultural city, I feel like we need to step away from the traditional definition of language as a belonging of empires to the more abstract realm of communication itself. We should focus more on the lingua francas in disguise and recognise more universal forms of communication as a part of language.
This will lead to more empathy, more free flowing communication that transcends the boundaries of political borders and leaps over the chasm of all that is lost in translation.
It’s all around us.
In pictures. Going back hundreds of years ago, this portrait of a Inca nusta in the colonial Andes transcends cultural borders by depicting Inca culture (the mascapaycha and uncu) in the European medium of portraiture.
In music. Stripping away lyrics, music leaves us with moods that are not carried by words. We naturally recognize the sad nature of minor chords, or the playfulness that often accompanies staccato melodies.
In mathematics. 1 + 1 = 2, no matter what language you speak. Mathematics is static in the midst of cultural clashes and changes, and communicates relationships of varying complexities, from simple arithmetic to multivariable calculus.
Perhaps such methods aren’t just for communicating to my roommates or understanding the Calibans that society portrays around the world. They destroy the Prospero - Caliban dynamic of dominance and savagery in a universal manner -- literally.
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In 1977 the planets became aligned in a manner that only occurs once every 176 years. This heavenly phenomenon allowed NASA to launch two probes, Voyager I and Voyager II, that would use the gravitational fields of other planets to slingshot their way outside of our solar system and into interstellar space. Currently, Voyager I is the only probe that is still active and outside our Solar System -- it is our communication to what is 'outside'.
How do we communicate with outsiders?
We don’t know their culture. We don’t know if they are more or less developed than we are. We don’t know if they are a Prospero or a Caliban.
Portrait of a Nusta. Artist Unknown, 1730-1750. On display at Museo Inca
The Golden Record. Two were made and attached to the Voyager probes. They contain recording of music, language, and nature. Engraved on it is the origin of the probe and how to play the record.
Two Golden Records were produced for the two Voyager probes. Through the use of pictures it communicates the anatomy of humans, and uses diagrams to show, in math, the location of Earth. The record itself contains music, sounds of nature, and greetings in a plethora of languages.
This is how we choose to communicate to others. We don’t judge them on intelligence. We take the time to produce ways communicate ourselves in more universal mediums.
Works Cited
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Chomsky, N.1972. Language and Mind. Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich. P 100.
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Eca, U. Experiences in Translation, translated by A. McEwen. Toronto, Ontario, Canada. University of Toronto Press. P17.
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