Final Project

Infographic – Foreign Language Stats

infographic

 

Audio Clip – Rya Butterfield

Video – Tommy Lee

Story

When someone refers to speaking, or mainly when I refer to the art of speaking, people usually associate it with spoken word poetry, different accents and dialects, or speeches. But many people, along with myself, typically forget about what speaking really is; a language. Whether it’s English, Spanish, or Gibberish, all forms of speaking are essentially a language and when referred to as an art, people don’t really consider foreign languages to be one. But people fail to realize how much time and discipline it takes to teach, learn, or even create a language.

Take for example June and Jennifer Gibbons.

Image result for the silent twins

Born in Wales in 1963, they were known as “The Silent Twins” due to their choice to only communicate only with each other, in their own language. They wrote brilliant works of fiction, but were convicted of arson, and were committed to Broadmoor Hospital for 11 years. Prior to their release in 1993, they informed the CEO that Jennifer would have to die, “to allow June to be free”. On that very day, Jennifer died suddenly at age 29.

Although her and her sister had such a strong bond with one another, Jennifer understood that by only communicating with her sister was only hurting her in the long run. While it isn’t confirmed if she committed suicide, she knew that if she were no longer around her sister would have to communicate with other people and establish relationships with people besides her by using another language.

Learning another language is a way to make the world a little bit smaller and better to experience. There are many things to gain from learning a foreign language like better job opportunities, brain health, improvement in first language vocabulary, creating personal connections, and personal achievement. So whether it’s learning Mandarin like Rya, learning English like Tommy, learning Klingon like the millions of Star Trek fans, or even creating your own language like the Gibbons twins, I’m sure it’s safe to say that there is nothing to lose in learning a foreign language.

  • TheSpokenArt