This week, my professor
assigned my class an essay. He said that
we should write something about our understanding of language of culture. As soon as I heard the topic, I decided that
I will start this essay by describing my trip to Japan when I was a child. In the following paragraph, I kind of just
picked out the part I think is worth putting on my blog because by doing some
amend, I tried to trim this essay to really express the real feeling inside my
mind instead of just an assignment.
Prismatic light shone from
the crystal I was going to insert to the keyhole. Satisfied with the intricate grooves I
forged, the metal gate swung backward automatically with surprisingly silence. Iridescent streaks stream toward me
triggering my instinct to hold up my arm for the protection of my eyes. Tentatively, I peeked out from behind the
gate. My nostrils flared with the smell
of lavender as the early morning sunbeam and cool wind soothed my face with
their gentle touch. Stunned, I gaped at
the room with a view. Stretching out
from the exit was a field of lavender with various patches of colors: purple,
indigo, lilac, sapphire, pink, red, yellow, green, to what seems like the
endless. They picked up with the
resemblance of gemstone glittering to life due to the sunlight. Suddenly, my
cell phone rang, and I stood up leaving the journal kept my trip to Japan on
the table. Language and cultural as I
just mentioned are key and the gate of view.
To further illustrate, I
shall explain language ── the key and the culture ── the view,
respectively. To begin with, the key is
made from a rough metal, which is like the mind that once was occupied by
biological need. As we grow up, and
experience the world around us, we chisel the metal trying to shape a way to
open a door toward the society. However,
in the era of global village, we cannot always use the same key and that is the
reason to learn the second language. To learn it means to accept the culture of
the people who speaks it: that is to say, to embrace a different perception
toward the world from another group, their way of thinking, their point of
view.
Recently, I have been reading
a series of fantasy novel, The Secret of Immortal
Nicholas Flamel, by Michael Scott.
In the book, there is a word drawing me a lot of attention──Awaken. Aside from its meaning in the novel, there is
another definition to me in my brain. It
is just like a sudden understanding of something. People just understand without any
reason. To me, as a native Mandarin
speaker, I suddenly understand the pattern of English when I read Fly Away Home. It just came to me. My five senses are
triggered and attention are drawn into the another land created by the author
who carefully notch the words onto his bow to shoot on the right target. When the sudden understanding comes or I am
Awakened, it like being soothing by a cool wind; the images the thought flow
through and poured into the body as well as mind and he blood is rushing circulating the whole
body. It's awesome and comfortable.
"Die
Grenzen meiner Sprache sind die Grenzen meiner Welt ", said by Ludwig
Wittgenstein. I started to attend a German class, recently. My German teacher wrote this
sentence on the blackboard on the first day of my first German class. He explained the meaning is "the limit of
my language is the limit of my world".
Right at that time, I made a wish to myself── I want to be Awakened
again.