Si pensamientos o lenguaje empieza primero

Today, the world back home was sleeping peacefully, just as they do every other Monday night at 2am. However, in Catalunya, it was 9 am on a Tuesday morning, and I was sitting in class. I take eleven extra hours of Spanish classes a week in my institute. Because of this, I am generally accustomed to hearing the same lessons over and over again. However, what I heard that Tuesday morning, gave me an amount of insight that some people will never have. The class had been discussing a collective book of poems. The teacher began discussing how the poets wrote about their lives, how they could use language to show their life story and who they had become. She continued the discussion by begging the question; did language or thought come first? At first, I concluded that thought began first. I like to think that I was born thinking and analyzing the world around me. However, she further questioned, “If thought happens first, what do you think in? Numbers? Colors? You were not born knowing any language.” I assume that maybe one could think with emotions, but I do not remember a time in which I did not know language. For this reason, I can not say with certainty which came first. Maybe I will never uncover which came first. However, that debate seemed infinitely less important in comparison to what she said next. She said, “Language had to have come first. It is how we learn and grow; It is how we learn who we are. The more skilled and knowledgeable one becomes in his or her language, the more insightful and matured one grows. This is a process that begins in one’s childhood.” I have probably heard a lecture similar to this before. Yet, living in a foreign country and listening to a lecture in Spanish, it really hit home this time around. I thought of the millions of exchange students around the world that come home with newly found passions, discovered careers, and developed maturity. I thought of the large new vocabulary of Spanish and Catalan words that I have to explain to my friends back home “simply can not be translated.” I thought of the quote, “To know another language is to own another soul.” In conclusion, I believe that this has to be one of the keys, not only in the life of an exchange student, but in the world. The more educated we become, not only in our language, but in those of other countries as well, the better we will understand who we are and how to express our thoughts. Anyone looking for his or herself will only be able to do so with the help of some form of language. Whether it was language or thoughts that came first, it can be concluded that their use is what will lead one to self discovery.