Language is our mirror .. and the understanding of culture begins with understanding the word

Manal Al -Husaini
The language is not just a way we communicate, but rather the space that we live from within. It is the way we think without awareness, and the way we feel and narrate with ourselves.
When we say “I love you”, we do not mean the word alone, but rather open the door of the heart to the other, and give it the right to enter our depths.
And when we are unable to express, the deficit is not in feeling, but in the narrowness of the language from containing what is in us.
We can not really understand ourselves when we can translate what we feel into words, and whoever does not find language, a prisoner remains a mysterious feeling that has no name.
Therefore, the language remains the first way to understand, and the first bridge we evaluate between us and our depths.
Language does not carry culture as a pregnancy on its back, but rather inhabits it as an inseparable spirit.
Every language within it hides a unique angle to see life, a special way to feel sad, a different way to express joy, and nostalgia that words may not translate.
In our Arabic language, we find words such as: “tranquility”, “Al -Shajn”, “Al -Sawaia”, and “People” .. not just words, but rather accurate emotional experiences, which he called those who lived it because they found them in themselves, and because our language was merciful enough to give them names.
And when we learn a new language, we not only gain different voices, but rather we reshape our awareness.
We realize that others do not see the world as we see, and that our simple sentence may carry a great weight for them.
We learn to pay attention to the details, to listen to what is behind the words, and to understand a person, not through his dictionary, but through his humanity.
Culture is not reduced to what we eat, wear, or celebrate, but rather lies in what we say when we are sad, and in the way we are consoled by those we love, in our silence, and in a moment of sincerity in which we choose to say the truth.
Without the language, these feelings remain suspended, looking for a way to the other and you do not find it.
For this, the language does not separate us, but rather gather us. Do not isolate us, but rather show how similar we are in depth, despite the different tongues.
Whenever we learn a language we are approaching a new person.
The more we understand our language, the more we approach ourselves.
In a world overwhelmed by noise, the language remains the most connecting a person to man.
We do not meet the face or hand first … we meet the word.
We love, reconcile, and recover.
And we say: “This is me.”
If you want to understand one of them, listen to his language.
And if you want to understand yourself … listen to the words that inhabit you.