This Oppression is so Sketch.

Yo. There’s something that has happened to just about all of us. You cruise into a place and everyone’s speaking a language that you don’t understand. There might be like 10 people around you, but it’s hella impossible to talk with even one of them. This breakdown in communication sends an incredibly clear message. Few things, if any, play as much of a role in our social circles as language.

            The reason you cannot talk to this room full of strangers is super obvious. But, how huge of an impact this has is not. There are about 6.7 billion people in the world, or something like that. Of those people, only like 1.8 billion speak English, even as a second or third language. This means that if you were to run into about three quarters, of the world, you would be out of luck. Unfortunately, once you realize that it’s impossible to talk to these people, trying and socialize or hang out any further is just sketch. Not a lot of things are more powerful in any social circle than something that stops you from chillin’ with 75% of the world.

            But this is only what happens when you think about the relation of different languages altogether. Even differences in the mastery of language make some people legit and screw other people over.  When you think about a job, people who get ahead are the people who speak well. Sure, credentials are considered, but how someone talks is pretty much just as important. Think about if you have two equal candidates. One’s poise under pressure is insane. He owns the conversation and leaves you without a doubt in his abilities, people skills, and most importantly, his confidence. Take another applicant. He swallows his words, speaks quietly, and gives and you impression that this conversation terrified him. The choice for the job is easy. So, a mastery of language can make someone successful and get them a better job, or serve as a wall that keeps them from getting respect.

            But the way that our mastery of language affects our social circles covers far more than our jobs and stuff like that. Think about anytime you made friends. Usually it’s because talking to these people seemed effortless and natural. A person who is better with language, would then obviously have more friends, because they were this effortless and natural in conversations with more people.  The people who are crazy good at talking go on to be the best lawyers, sales people, and politicians because they have so many friends and are able to make so many more, so easily. So the people who speak well excel both in the workplace, their social lives, and then, even more in the workplace because they are so good at meeting people and making the right connections.

            But the subtleties in language have a crazy impact on even our closest circle socials, our families. Our social skills are super important in mingling with the opposite sex and then someday, finding a spouse. I was lucky enough to be part of two very different social circles in high school, jocks and geeks. The effect of their individual social skills was obvious when examining both the quality and quantity of women that surrounded them. The jocks would speak in such a way that conveyed an attitude of apathy, entitlement, humor, and again, confidence. Some of them, even if they had a face that looked like it got beat with a shovel, would seem like they had a new attractive girl in their life every week. They spoke well, so things like appearance were overshadowed by confidence. My nerdy friends could only admire from a distance. All of their attempts to speak to women had given an impression of neediness and insecurity. It wasn’t even that they were ugly. Several female friends had actually said a few of them were hot. What it came down to was how well they used language. Unfortunately, the importance of language in finding a spouse will still affect them in college and years after.

            So, when you talk about how oppressive language is in any social circles, it almost has to be the most important factor. Not only does language prohibit us from talking to most of the world, but its mastery also decides how well we interact with the people we are even capable of talking to. The people who speak will often end up in the most privileged of social circles. They will often have the better jobs, the most friends, and the most attractive, and well-spoken, spouses. If you scope some guy and he’s with a girl you think is probably way out of his league, the key to their hooking up probably has something to do with how well he communicates. In the end, our careers, our friendships, our spouses, and our families, are largely determined by what languages we know, as well as our mastery of those languages. Peace.