Language and Freedom

Language is a powerful tool that almost every person possesses. Language allows us to communicate with one another to express ourselves, whether our emotions are joyous, sad, despaired, worried, anxious or excited, there are hundreds of feelings we can express through our language. I believe simply being able to express one’s feelings is a sign of freedom.
The most important expression language allows us to portray is unhappiness. Language gives us the freedom to disagree with something we feel is not right. If we feel we are being mistreated in a way, Language provides us a means to let our feelings of dissatisfaction be known. To really understand how powerful language is, think of a baby and how they show their sadness or anger. The only tool a baby has is a scream or a wail. While most mothers will do whatever they can until they find out what the problem is, the baby cannot be taken care of right away because the caretaker cannot be sure of what the baby is saying without language.
One personal experience that I can think of that portrayed the freedom language provides happened when I was in San Diego. I was on a very Southern beach in the San Diego area, so it was very close to the Mexican border, with my boyfriend at the time who was bilingual (Spanish and English). We were sitting in a restaurant in a village-type area full of little shops when an elderly woman began raising her voice. When we finally found where the commotion was coming from, this woman was yelling at a young boy who appeared to be Mexican. The story we gathered was that the little boy’s family had eaten at this restaurant and had not paid enough money to cover their bill. It soon became clear that the young boy was the only member of his family of four that could somewhat understand and speak English, however the boy could only have been about eight and his English was not very strong. While there were many people around. It was clear that it was much divided; people were either completely English speakers, or complete Spanish speakers. My boyfriend realized this and went to help the situation, as soon as he was able to explain, in Spanish, what the woman’s complaint was, the father of the family pulled out his wallet and gave the right amount, making the elderly woman appear to feel quite embarrassed.
This story really stands out to me showing the freedom language gives you. I can only imagine that the Mexican family was very confused and sad that this woman was yelling at them, when in their eyes they had done no wrong. Language was what gave them the freedom to correct what was wrong and make a decision after understanding the problem. Even though the language came from an outside source, when they were assisted and given the tool of language the problem was quickly resolved. I can only hope that people will recognize the power of language in similar situations before they get upset or frustrated and realize that the only problem may actually be the language itself.