Languages and Healing
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Forum Name: Cultural Experiences in Foreign Languages
Forum Discription: The place to share your personal cultural experiences in foreign languages: books you read, trips, Zeitgeist abroad and other memorable things you did in a foreign language.
URL: http://how-to-learn-any-language.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=37270
Printed Date: 13 June 2021 at 5:23am
Posted By: kanewai
Subject: Languages and Healing
Date Posted: 09 November 2013 at 11:48am
It's been an emotionally draining two weeks in the islands - a same-sex marriage
equality bill was before the legislature, and it brought out the meanness in some
people.
Sometimes languages can be healing, and can bring us together. I don't know if I've
seen this covered on HTLAL.
The Equality Bill just passed, Friday night at 10 pm.
And when the cheers were done, the crowd spontaneously broke out into
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3R7h_ZXsLfU - Hawai`i Aloha
Even if most of us here can't speak Hawaiian, we all know the chorus:
E hau'oli na 'opio o Hawai'i nei
'Oli e! 'Oli e!
Mai na aheahe makani e pa mai nei
Mau ke aloha, no Hawai'i
Happy youth of Hawaii
Rejoice! Rejoice!
Gentle breezes blow
Love always for Hawaii.
We bond through music, of course, but I think we also bond through a shared language,
and all the world that it encapsulates.
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Replies:
Someone just sent this video ... a similar thing happened in New Zealand, but with a
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DW4DXOAXF8U - Maori love song .
kanewai on 09 November 2013
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kanewai wrote:
Sometimes languages can be healing, and can bring us together. I don't know if I've
seen this covered on HTLAL.
We bond through music, of course, but I think we also bond through a shared language,
and all the world that it encapsulates.
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Try as I might, I can't make sense of this thread. What point or thesis are you making and how would you have us discuss it? I have a few questions that I can't find answers to by reading your post:
1. Are you suggesting that some languages are more bondable or healing than others?
2. What sort of healing powers are you suggesting languages have?
3. If the healing power was a metaphor, what did you mean by it?
(I know these are silly questions but I try to explain it below)
I'm not trying to be asinine, I'm just confused. I'm thinking I'm not getting this because I just don't honestly think that simply pointing out that common language brings people together warrants a thread, it should be something very obvious to most people. That idea has been rampant since nationalism broke out, that a country should consist of the people who have the same culture and same language and heritage, and it is exactly why national anthems exist, for example.
Henkkles on 09 November 2013
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Henkkles wrote:
| Try as I might, I can't make sense of this thread. |
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Why is that such a problem for you? :) It's just one thread. There must be hundreds of threads here which don't make sense to me and hundreds if not thousands of posts that I don't agree with, and I just ignore them.
As for the healing effects of languages, this is probably not what the original poster had in mind, but I've just recently realized that studying languages (or a language in my case) has probably actually resulted in lower stress levels for me. When my thoughts are focused on the intricacies of the language I'm studying, I'm not thinking about stressful work-related matters, which would otherwise occupy my mind.
maucca on 09 November 2013
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maucca wrote:
Henkkles wrote:
| Try as I might, I can't make sense of this thread. |
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Why is that such a problem for you? :) It's just one thread. There must be hundreds of threads here which don't make sense to me and hundreds if not thousands of posts that I don't agree with, and I just ignore them. |
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Because I want to understand rather than just shrug my shoulders.
Henkkles on 09 November 2013
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@Henkkles - It might be more of a psychological question than a language-learning
question, and it's still a half-formed idea on my part, so I don't know if I can
express
it well. But it struck me that, after a really rough two weeks, people turned to a
second language to unite, and to express themselves.
I think it ties in with the other thread about personalities and language. Some people
talk about having a different persona in their second language. Maybe the same things
work here, that a second language allows you to express things that would be too raw,
or
too emotional, in your native tongue.
edit: I just saw your follow up questions. I don't think that some languages are "more
healing" (though I hear a lot of new age crap like that), but more that a second
language might offer a safe buffer, or a bit of emotional distance.
kanewai on 09 November 2013
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The concept is obvious but it's nice to discuss specific experiences, both when languages unite people and when the healing only concerns one person.
For me toki pona is a great example because if you express your problem in it, you'll see how the same words can mean other things, so that you're not as alone as it seems.
Serpent on 10 November 2013
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kanewai wrote:
but more that a second
language might offer a safe buffer, or a bit of emotional distance. |
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It does for me. But I'd have a guess at those songs being ... at the same time exotic, but very familiar? Songs you learnt in nursery school, in elementary school, songs you learnt to understand as full of positive emotions, but which aren't full of different memories for different people, like christmas songs are for christian and non-christian kids who learnt them in school, like I did?
Bao on 10 November 2013
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I'm starting to think of myself as a linguistic healer. I resolve the concerns that "my native language is stupid for doing X", by explaining which other languages have this phenomenon and that different from English absolutely doesn't mean stupid.
Serpent on 02 April 2014
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I think I understand what you're saying, and I would agree that there are some thoughts and emotions that have a greater impact in one language versus another. The way I've come to experience this is through music, in the sense that culturally and socially you're implicitly expected to have certain reactions to a particular set of lyrics or text. So I think sometimes it's hard to fully feel everything. I just heard a beautiful version this past year of a woman singing "O Holy Night" in Yoruba, which is a language I don't understand. Now, obviously, I know the text to the song pretty well, so I have a vague idea of what she would have been saying. But without knowing anything about the language, there was something about that particular text that was very touching in a way that other languages hadn't been able to achieve (and normally I don't even like that particular song!). I have no idea if this makes any sense, but sometimes I wonder if a language that isn't a common one, or that you don't even understand can bring about a true emotional reaction because you're not confined to social expectations associated with language.
Fuenf_Katzen on 02 April 2014
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Well then, it seems political commentary is acceptable. Good to know.
ScottScheule on 03 April 2014
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