The Human Language

She held my hand. Nothing needed to be said, there was mutual understanding. Oxytocin began flooding my body. I finally felt like I could breathe. No more reading signals. She likes me.

There are of course, plenty of moments like this. No words need be exchanged for two people to communicate an idea. Sometimes it only takes a glance. Facial expressions, hand gestures, images, videos, we use whatever we have to get our message out there.

We'll speak a global language one day. When nomadic early humans spread out, distance led to communication gaps causing the formation of entirely new languages. For the last 100 years, we’ve been mending these wholes. I can now send information to someone 5,000 miles away at the speed of light.

Translation is interesting because the ideas are identical. It’s the noises that change, e.g. love. A Chinese kiss is the same as an English kiss (not applicable to French). A German hug is identical to a Japanese hug. The letters, characters, pronunciation, all vary pending location, but love as a concept is global.

Watch the world cup. The best soccer players from every qualifying country compete for the title of best team in the world. The Dutch play the French, Brazil plays Argentina, Croatia, whoever. They don’t need a dictionary for a successful match. The language of soccer has already transcended every border. That’s why sports prevail where politics fail.

The human language already exists. What we’re missing is mutual understanding. The first person to see fire must have grabbed his cave buddies, pointed, and said “****”! The actual phrase is irrelevant, as long as everyone agreed.

One day, the girl who held my hand stopped calling. I’d tell you the rest of the story, but you already know what this means.