The Importance of Communication

Communication is the basis of our society. For several years we have been improving our language to communicate better. Also, communication has shaped the way our society thinks and conveys ideas (Boroditsky, 2018). Another interesting fact about communication is that we are constantly using it. For those who are seeking higher education, they must consider extra skills such as those described by Zekeri and Baba (2014), “Skills rated as essential in college education are oral communication, written communication, problem-solving techniques, motivating and managing others, and setting personal and organizational goals” (p. 323).

According to Boroditsky (2018), there are about 7 thousand different languages globally, and all play the same role in communication. We use language to communicate with each other, and she describes it as we transmit thoughts one to another. Furthermore, communication conveys knowledge word-wide. Thus, we can imagine how important communication is for us and how communication has changed the world and the way we think. Interestingly, she also mentions that some languages have gender, others have no direction or numbers, but they still can communicate. One good example that she gave was comparing the Sun and the Moon in Spanish and German. Both use masculinity and feminism to describe it; however, in Spanish, the sun is masculine, the moon is feminine, and vice-versa in German, as we can observe in the image below.

According to Jamison (2014), communication is also used in the animal world. These animals use communication for several reasons, such as locating food, navigation, and finding another to reproduce. Recently, scientists discovered one blue whale, which was unknown for many years. While they were analyzing the sonar, they identified some unknown communication transmitted in an odd frequency. During the investigation, they discovered these specific sounds were calls from the whale transmitted in untraditional frequency. Whales, in general, use a frequency range from 15 to 20 hertz, but this one was using 52 hertz that was a new epoch for the scientists. To make a long history short, what we learn from this discovery is that animals also communicate, and using the whales as an example, their calls, which are a sort of language, can travel for thousands of miles.

We usually think that our language has been breaking over the years, but we must see it from a different point of view, trying to see what the perspectives for the language will be for the future. Both McWhorter (2013) and Nestor (2017) present that language is constantly being adapted and developed. Thus, McWhorter (2013) suggests that a new way to communicate by using text has changed our patterns of interaction. Because of the technology, we are trying to save time texting each other more often and using different language standards such as symbols and abbreviations. Moreover, Nestor (2017) presents some studies that show some perspective to our communication for the future, in which we would be able to learn how to communicate with animals.

References

Boroditsky, L. (2018, April). How language shapes the way we think [Video]. TED. https://ed.ted.com/on/WzWvOfAY

Jamison, L. (2014). 52 Blue. The Atavist Magazine, 40. https://magazine.atavist.com/52-blue

McWhorter, J. (2013, February). Txtng is Killing Language. JK!!! [Video]. TED. https://www.ted.com/talks/john_mcwhorter_txtng_is_killing_language_jk?language=en

Nestor, J. (2017, October). Deep dive: What we are learning from the language of whales [Video]. TED. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JM77aTk1XyI

Zekeri, A., & Baba, P. (2014). Evaluation of skills needed in college education by colleges of agriculture alumni from 1862 and 1890 land grant universities in Alabama and Tennessee. College Student Journal, 48(2), 322–324.