By Daniel True
In the late 50′s, I spent over two years in Germany as part of the US Army. Being from the mountains of Virginia, and even though they did offer courses in French, Spanish and Latin in high school, I didn’t really see the need to put forth the effort to learn any of them. I just KNEW that I would never put them to use. I quickly learned after arriving in Europe that “foreign” language understanding would have been a plus!
Most on the Continent, even in the 50′s, did speak English as a second language, primarily because of the influence of the military occupation and presence of US and British troops after WWII (when I was there the German children in the FIRST grade were required to begin two foreign languages in addition to German!). THEY put forth the effort to learn the language of their “occupiers”; however, many of the “GI’s” did learn some conversational German (French, Italian, etc.).
I had some German Nationals as friends so I took the attitude that, since I was a “visitor” in their country, I should do my best to learn their language. So, I exerted that effort (emphasis on the effort!). There was only one “self-tutoring” method available in those dark ages, Berolitz, and was too expensive for a soldier to afford. And since it was BC (before computers), I went to the post library and checked out English-German dictionaries and such, and began the strenuous task of “self-tutoring”. I practiced on my Deutsch friends who received a lot of laughs!
After leaving Germany and returning to the USA I never did try to become more proficient in the German language, not seeing any further need of it. However, for a few years I DID write letters in German.
Recently, a friend from high school who is a law professor spent some time teaching in Germany, so I had the opportunity to “practice” conversational German again (using e-mail). Yes, I DO have an English-German translator on my computer!
Back to the current eon, there has been an effort to define or establish a “universal” language. English is most commonly used in business, engineering, commercial travel (planes, ships), etc. For a few years in the last century the impetus was toward a new language, Esperanto, but it has not gotten a foothold.
Do we need a universal language? Well, looking back to the book of Genesis (11: 1-9) and the account of the Tower of Babel, the then-universal or “Adamic language” was “confused” so that man could not gain world-wide control and “take the place of “or being equal to God Himself, as man was trying to do in building that tower in Babylon.
Quite naturally, for the anti-Christ to assume dominance of the whole earth, a universal or common language would be essential. So, we may see a concerted effort to re-establish or return to a one-world language. And it may occur!
Well, God as usual knew what He was doing by creating the some-70 languages and dialects in the world! It helps keep man humble and reduces the possibility of a one-world government.
When Jesus returns in all His glory, we will all be able to worship Him in ONE voice! I believe that on that day we all will, supernaturally, be speaking a common language, like Adam when he communicated with God in the Garden of Eden. It probably won’t be Latin!!
We could mention the possibility of “speaking in tongues” but THAT is for another discussion!
Jesus said, “ - – - out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.“ ( Matt 12:34). So, there will be a language that we all will know and use. I’m looking forward to that time (which is probably not too far off)!
If it doesn’t happen in my lifetime – - – well, like Jesus Christ (at His Ascension) AND Arnold Schwarzenegger (in “The Terminator”), said:
“I’LL BE BACK“!
After a short period of 121 years Esperanto is now in the top 100 languages, out of 6,800 worldwide, according to the CIA World factbook. It is the 17th most used language in Wikipedia, and in use by Skype, Firefox and Facebook.
Native Esperanto speakers,(people who have used the language from birth), include George Soros, World Chess Champion Susan Polger, Ulrich Brandenberg the new German Ambassador to NATO and Nobel Laureate Daniel Bovet. According to the CIA Factbook the language is within the top 100 languages, out of all languages, worldwide.
Confirmation of this can be seen at http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8837438938991452670 A glimpse of the language can be seen at http://www.lernu.net
I also wished I had taken the time to learn a second language…especially Spanish and perhaps German, since that is my ancestory. But, at this stage in my life I think I will stick to English and my beautiful prayer language. I am all for diversity, that is what makes the world such a beautiful place. GOD does all things well and yes HE understands even our heart cry…NO language needed to communicate HIS love and our love for HIM. Actions speak louder than words, a smile can change someone’s day. A look in someone’s eyes can let that person know/feel what you are saying.