That Smile On Your Face

You say it best when you say nothing at all

I was trying to create an article in continuation to my post yesterday but I discontinued it because I remember the writing prompt for this week.

Language. Are you familiar with the first line above? It is a line from the song “When you say nothing at all” which was originally sung by Keith Whitley in 1988. Then it was covered by Alison Krauss in 1995. Four years later, Ronan Keating made his cover of the same song. I love to listen to the version from Alison Krauss. I just find her voice so cool and relaxing. In fact I have been playing that song with my guitar and singing it to my ex-girlfriend (now my wife). The chords are just basic G-D-C-D. Thus music becomes a language that we became husband and wife.

Anyway let me go straight to our topic for this week's prompt. Back in college, our English professor used that line for that day’s lesson. I already forgot what it was about but all I can remember was the lyric from that song. You say it best when you say nothing at all, is not really idiomatic or something metaphorical. The line itself can tell what it means. It is very self explanatory like action speaks louder than words.

Without a word

Body language, facial expression, hand gestures or even sign languages are all kinds of saying at its best even without saying a word.

A smile is a language that all people in the world can understand. It can bring peace. It can forgive, it can heal and even make friends with strangers.

When I was working in the Middle East, I learned a few Arabic languages. Those words only allow us to communicate inside the plant premises or outside to communicate with store owners and sellers at the market. Arabic words like mushkila (problem), kabir (big), saghir (small), sadiq (friend) and counting numbers are only a few of the Arabic languages I have learned. I really wanted to learn how to speak and write in Arabic. I just find it very interesting and cool because of how they pronounce their words. Like the French language, they are very concerned with pronunciation.

I have also met several races from India, Pakistan, Sudan, Egypt and Bangladesh although I have never tried learning their languages. One thing that got me confused was with how Indians would nod their head if they want to agree with you or a go signal. They would turn their head to the left going up as if they were disagreeing. Unlike with us Pinoys or Americans where we would nod if we agree or turn our head left and right to disagree. I misinterpreted one of my Indian co-worker back then when I asked him something, then he confirmed by nodding his head the way they do it. I thought he was disagreeing but it was the other way around.

How do you talk to yourself?

I always talk to myself as if I am talking to someone else like literally you could hear the words coming out from my mouth. Sometimes my wife would answer like, “What did you say? Are you talking to me? I can even use passive aggressive language to myself if I did something wrong. Or praise myself as high as possible when I have accomplished something. I just laugh sometimes when I notice myself talking like a stray lunatic. You will just then realize that you have been talking to yourself alone for too long.  I don’t think there is any problem with that but people sometimes would think of us like we have already lost our sanity. Just make sure there's no one there with you when you want to talk to yourself. 

Are you interested in learning other kinds of language? Why or why not?

I want to learn to speak and write other foreign languages too. I like to learn Mandarin and French. In fact I have several language lessons on one of my hard drives that has been sitting for a couple of years. It's just that I can’t give time to study them yet. Hopefully I can give time to start learning by means of this writing prompt. 

In a sense we don’t have to learn other languages unless it has become part of our job or we moved to another country. There are also cases when we have to learn another language when we meet a new foreign friend or one has become a member of the family.

Whenever I am watching the local TV news I am keen to observe the translator for the deaf and mute person and I am kind of interested in learning such too. If only I had a chance to learn all the languages in the world I would. 

There are so many languages for different people around the world and English is the world's most understandable language everyone can use. However even if all people around the world would talk in just one language there are still conflicts thus resulting in wars and chaos.

It is good to learn how to communicate with people no matter what kind of language we use. More important is that we can understand each other and one thing I can think of that could help people live in peace is the language of love.

Thanks for reading. Ciao! 

This is my participation in  Writing prompt #13 by Jonica Bradley which is about Language.

The rules are simple.

1. Write anything about language

2. Write 100% original content

3. Write at least 600 words so Rusty will reward you

4. Submit to the PromptlyJonica community (please join us if you haven't already)

5. Tag  @JonicaBradley and @TengoLoTodo

6. Have fun!

You may want to check my previous post:

Been There Done That

━◦○◦━◦○◦━◦○◦━◦○◦━◦○◦━◦○◦━━◦○◦━◦○◦━◦

To all those who support, Thank you!

━◦○◦━◦○◦━◦○◦━◦○◦━◦○◦━◦○◦━━◦○◦━◦○◦━◦

Lead image source