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Something in Common

Everyone ought to study and learn a foreign language at some point in their lives, preferably sooner than later. The sooner you set your brain to that task, the better off it will be for the effort. Some lucky kids start out their lives by learning second and third languages as children, when their brains are very plastic and can easily adapt to such changes. Later in life, it becomes more of an academic exercise, not as natural but still highly beneficial.

I'm so happy I took that first French class in the eighth grade some 37 years ago and went on to study Latin in high school, then dabbled in Spanish, Italian, Japanese, and learned Swedish that year I lived in Sweden, 25 years ago.

My daughter is now in her third year of Latin in the eighth grade and just received high honors on her report card, and my son is following in her footsteps in his first year in Latin in the sixth grade. They're doing it right. Seeing them studying Latin last night at the kitchen table brought to mind all the time I spent learning grammar and vocabulary so long ago. In fact, there's an OpEd in the NY Times today, extolling the virtues of an education that includes Latin (see A Vote for Latin).

Little did I realize the fringe benefits I'd enjoy from that early hard work - first and foremost, beyond being able to communicate in other languages, all that study of language gave me added perspective, as well as vocabulary and grammar skills in my own language - I love English, and as you can tell, enjoy writing.

What's more, learning foreign languages changed the way I look at the world and encouraged a desire to travel and get out and see the world, which I did in abundance in my twenties. When you experience the common elements of all these different languages, societies and cultures, through one-on-one interaction with other people, the point is driven home. How much we have in common with people all around the globe. As different as we all are, we have so much in common.

And the proof is there in the pudding. You can tell when you look at the words, really look at them, that they have something in "common." Dictionary.com shows us that Community shares a stem in the Latin word for "common" - communis, with Communication. What both those words have in common, is the stem "common."

And then there is the Latin word for "with" -"cum," which in English becomes the stem "co-" "com-" or "con-".

Just think of all those words that begin with those three stems ...what they have in common is they all involve bringing together things, people, efforts, actions, studies, etc.

Cooperate
Communicate
Collaborate
Community
College
Conference
Connect
Common
Contract

The list could go on and on.

Having something in common is the basis for all friendship, the connections we form with others. From those connections we gain the experience we need to establish trust. From trust, we get the courage to accomplish things by working together, to share risks and reap greater rewards. Our joint actions involve bringing things together. All those things we really enjoy in life, those things that make it worthwhile, come from connecting with others and finding a way to live and work together.

I remember when I was a kid, I used to wonder at all the Christmas cards that would come in the mail from people I'd never met. Little did I realize that for my parents, the ritual of sending and receiving Christmas cards was the one sure way that they'd be able to stay in touch, to maintain a common bond that they'd established with friends and loved ones from the earlier stages of their lives. For a military family that had to relocate often, staying in touch took on an added importance and meaning.

So today, I'm tasked with putting together the Christmas mailing list, which will be a tweaking of last year's list. That won't be that big an effort. The bigger effort will be in writing the Christmas letter, taking the family picture, and sending the cards out. All that effort has a meaning though. It communicates to those friends and family the closeness we still feel. It says to them that at one point and still, we had and still have something in common with them, we were and still are a part of a community, and so we communicate.

I find it hard to fathom sometimes, but even I still write letters and send cards, especially at Christmas time. But we communicate with more variety now than we used to; our need to communicate has in no way diminished, and we have more tools at our disposal. It's far easier to pick up the phone and make a call, in fact, long distance is beginning to fade away as a communications term. And then there's email. Now there's too much of a good thing. And while we may send fewer letters, we actually end up writing more, I would argue, by using these new electronic media. An essential element to make all this communication work is broadband infrastructure - "always on" makes writing that much easier.

Broadband technology is making it ever easier to communicate and stay in touch, to form and keep communities. In a world where events and activities seem to conspire to pull us apart, broadband has become one of our most potent and vital tools. We will never stop talking, never stop connecting. Our need to stay connected will not diminish. Broadband, in that light, is not that exotic, but rather one more step in an evolutionary path to find easier, better, and cheaper means of staying in touch with the many communities that we have become part of.

Posted on December 03, 2007 at 08:13 AM

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