Today I want to say something more positive than the events happening outside our homes. They say that there are about 11 countries in the world which do not take part in the war conflict.
Do you remember yet the song called “Relax”? There is a line saying that we should “Relax, take it easy for there is nothing that we can do.”
Now I understand that not only we can do something when it seems completely impossible, but we can make a great impact on the community we live in.
You will ask me what I’m talking about and how to manage to do so.
I’m talking about the language learning, English in our case. You know that if you can explain your thoughts to the other people, you can achieve more in the arrangement of conflicts. If you can listen to the ideas of those people, you are able to do even more!
I want to describe the maximum of benefit that we can get through language learning.
Let me speak about peace, and quote Wikipedia here:
“Peace occurs between heterogeneous social groups and is characterized by a lack of conflict and freedom from fear of violence. Commonly understood as the absence of hostility, peace often involves compromise and therefore is initiated with thoughtful listening and communication to enhance and create mutual understanding.”
What can we do now using this information?
Like any other change, this one should also start from ourselves.
Begin listening exercises with your beloved, and parents.
Continue with speaking sessions: say what you want to say but always remember that there are two of you in a dialogue. Keep quiet. Only after your talk, the opponent can start his/her speech.
Learning a new dialect will help you to deal with your native language – you will be able to hear more than you did before; you’ll get different aspects of the same information.
Here it is our secret method of changes, that start in our heads, in our homes, and in our hearts!
I believe that if two well-educated people meet, they more likely will be friends, than enemies in case if they speak one language to understand each other. (This point is about deeper learning – Intermediate, Advance levels.)
I suppose that the language learning could have helped me to make a lot of friends. I am religious, though I’m friend with Jew, Muslim, and Catholic people, and my husband is Buddhist. Maybe it’s due to his influence that I’m calm, and don’t argue with him. Or it’s possible that my pedagogical education helps.
If we consult the old historic examples, there were a lot of wars just because one governor didn’t want to hear another. Oh, that wild history with its awful stories!
What’s about today?
People today may not understand each other well enough.
We live in a cosmopolitan world (if we summarise), we feel free, equal. Still, we might be a little rude to someone. All of us could have been not so tolerant or pleasant to another, but we can’t change the past. What we can do is to say “I’m sorry for what I did or told.”
So as to make people understand, we have to speak their language. And English today is spread wide enough to talk to foreign nations. That’s the goal of our classes: to be able to say something in a different (kinder) manner to an unfamiliar person, who will inevitably become friendly to us.
And that’s the question to you: Do you believe in world peace possibility if people understand each other better?
