Daisuke Aoki - 1(NIT (KOSEN), Toyama College, Imizu Campus)

To be in the 13% in the World.
Daisuke Aoki (NIT (KOSEN), Toyama College, Imizu Campus)
What languages can you speak? What language are you learning? Language is very
important for all animals including humans. Some animals cry and roar while others
use smells, behaviors, and sound to convey their intentions. Humans use severallanguages to explain their minds. Human-spoken languages have four qualities:
discreteness, grammar, productivity, and displacement.
Discreteness refers to the property that “a language has individual sounds andwords, and the combination of these have new meaning.” Grammar is a rule thatdefines how those sounds and words are arranged. Productivity is the ability to express
numerous expressions using language. And displacement is the ability to use language
to talk about the events that are not happening in front of you. For example, talking
about past or future events fall under “displacement”. So far, I talked about theintentions of language. It sounds complicated and it is, but it’s also very interesting.
Some studies indicate that there are over 6000 languages. But most people can only
speak a few. It is said that about 43% of people in the world, can speak two languages
meaning they are bilingual and 13% are said to be trilingual. I have a question. Why dopeople try to learn a language? I think there are two answers. One is to communicate topeople. And the other is to understand culture more deeply. The former is the essence oflanguage. Humans can understand each other’s intentions by using words. Of course,
we can convey our intention by using only gestures and actions. But we may
misinterpret them. However, words are the best way to understand people more deeply.
So, we learn language for fluid communication. Understanding culture is the purpose ofDOING SOMETHING with words. In order to gain a deeper understanding of acountry’s culture, we should learn the local language. It’s not only important for culture
but also for people. Nelson Mandela, who was the president of South Africa said, “If you
talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in
HIS language, that goes to his heart.” It means to communicate deeply we need to know
the local language and culture. I think these are the main reasons why people learn
language.
Well then, I believe most Kosen students are learning English. If you can speak
English, that ability will be an important ASSET for your future as English is theLingua Franca of the world. But I think there are few people who are trilingual,
Suppose we learn a 3rd language, what language do you want to learn? Perhaps you firstimagine the country you like. Then you think what is the official language of thatcountry. Another way of thinking is which official language is most likely to be spoken in
the world. The answer is simple. It’s Chinese. About 1.3 billion people speak Chinese.
But I think you shouldn’t choose a language just because a large number of people speak
it. You should choose it because you are passionate about it and are deeply interested init. Actually, I’m learning Chinese at Toyama Kosen but I’m having a hard time because
studying it is very hard. But it doesn’t mean that I don’t like Chinese, it’s also really

Daisuke Aoki - 2(NIT (KOSEN), Toyama College, Imizu Campus)
interesting.
So far, I talked about the difficulty of learning a language but, it’s also a lot of fun.
How you learn the language from now on depends on your interests.
I believe you should choose a 3rd language that you are really interested in because if
you can speak English perfectly, you’ll be able to communicate easily with others. Andlearning a 3rd language means you have a strong passion to learn. So, you can learn thelanguage while having fun. Having fun helps to sustain your motivation.