Tongues On Fire

Are you aware of how much power the human tongue possesses?

Besides detecting chemicals in the food that enable us to enjoy the sense of tasting many delicacies in our world, tongues are also the agents of words. And words hold much power. Words can build up, words can tear down; words can encourage, words can criticize; words can be used as agents for positive change, and words can also be used to sow discord and arguments.

Evan as language has developed over the years, so has the meanings of various words and additions of words, as well as words that are becoming obsolete such as the ancient English terms "thee" and "thou" which can only be most commonly found in hymns and ancient literature. Semantic difficulties arise with the increase of words or their usages in everyday situations. For example, the word 'major' can mean simply 'important' i.e major exam, a military rank, a term to describe career option i.e 'majoring in graphic design', a certain scale comprised of certain combination of notes in music, and others. (For other examples, you can always refer to your friendly thesaurus...)

And as time passed, many words deemed unusual and unfit for use in it's full form have become so commonplace in modern society, especially among the younger generation. Thanks to the influence of Western culture, words like 'd-m-', 'd-r-', 'sh--' and the ever-popular 'f...' word have been used by many people at one time or another without us even realizing that it slipped out of our tongue, simply because it's used so often by people around us that it becomes a norm to use these words.

Besides slang, another negative usage of words, this one ages older than the latter, is gossip and slandering. Gossip and slandering have one purpose, that is to bring down the person or people that are being gossiped about due to a lack of respect and/or discomfort and hatred towards someone or a group of people. Many people (myself guilty as well) are easily tempted to gossip and complain about someone or certain people when they do or say something that displeases us. One of the most hurting thing about gossip is that it really gives people a negative perception about the person being gossiped about and worse still, the person has no idea or only a mild idea that bad things are being told about them.

In my opinion, we really need to think about the power of words. When someone posts that he or she wants to jump off a building on Facebook, and when there are unaware and/or not-so well-meaning friends that tell them to go ahead, they really go ahead and tragedy ensues, such as the 2 recent cases of suicide among Malaysian young adults show. Words can cause more havoc than what they were intended to convey by the speaker, and words can also convey disrespect when certain words are used on elders, such as slang and also our intonation, i.e raising our voice.

We can replace certain slang words,  but still portray the same intensity of emotion by actually putting them in proper English. For example, the expression "I don't give a d-m-" actually means "I really don't care about it".

Regarding the usage of words to tear down through gossip and slandering, they can cause permanent scars on someone's life and perhaps their reputation as well. I am of the opinion that if you really don't like someone or feel uneasy about something that they've done, then why not just tell them somehow? Even though it's also true that certain people don't feel good when listening to the truth, for the truth often hurts, in the long run they'll most likely thank you for telling them what was wrong. Sometimes people aren't aware of their bad habits simply because nobody told them that they had them in the first place...!

Well, as a personal check to make sure that I practice what I preach: Well, I do misuse words in various ways, and sometimes I don't realize that I have indirectly insulted someone or at the very least brought them down by making certain remarks. Hmm, would a 10-second rule of thinking through on what to say work? I think it's a good idea, since time can prevent me from saying things out too rashly and then regretting that I had ever, ever let those words out of my mouth. This strategy won't work in MUET speaking though, that one's a one shot thing...

I shall end today's post with a Scripture reference: "Don’t use foul or abusive language. Let everything you say be good and helpful, so that your words will be an encouragement to those who hear them." --Ephesians 4: 29, New Living Translation (copyright 2007)