Recovering the Essence in

Language
By: Onel Manrique
I remember my expectation about my English learning at the UPEL and
the shock I suffered in my first day of class. I was convinced that I would be
taught to speak English by learning words per words and sentences per
sentences until l could find myself speaking English. The expectation was the
same expectations that most of people usually have about a standard ESL
course. The shock came when l entered to my first English class on Wednesday
afternoon (it was a speaking class and Professor Yuraimig Rivero was the
teacher) and the teacher started to speak completely in English. I was really
shocked, I just asked myself: What do l do? I understand nothing! The worst
part came when my partners started to answer in English the questions the
teacher asked Everyone in that classroom spoke in English except me! That
frustrating event dared me to practice hard.
That day I met a guy named Gustavo Torres whose English was, at that
moment, amazing. We shared the same creed; this accelerated the process of
building our friendship. We agreed t,o be speaking partners and l began to
spend time with him speaking and listening to him. I acquired the language
with him. It was so hard at the beginning because my brain got tired because
of the mental work. At the end of the first term, l had learned the language.
Ive been learning through the language the English culture and others.
Through it Ive established relationships with North American people and met
two Australian ones and Ive took the opportunity to talk to Trinitarian, Indian,
French, and Germany people and so on.
I certain believe that that is the purpose of learning and having a
language, to get to communicate with others and to learn about what is
peoples hearts and minds. In fact, that was the reason God gave the man the
capacity to understand and express thoughts, ideas, desires and so on. God
needed the man to understand His desires for the earth and He needed the
man to transmit those desires to his descendants.
During these terms, from the first one to the fourth, l learned some
details about the language like pronunciation, structures of sentences and
other things. However, the main thing I learned in this period was not to try to
literally transliterate words, phrases, sentences and ideas, but to think in
English interpreting the world as the native people does. For instance: in an
English culture wedding, the priest always says talk now or take your peace
forever; and in a Latin American culture wedding the priest says talk now or
be silent forever. In the first statement people mean that if you choose not to

talk dont complain inside of you, but in the second statement people of other
culture mean that if you choose not to talk dont speak again on your even
when what you want to say remains burning inside of you. Language is about
ways to express concepts, perspectives, ideas, feelings and so on; that vary
from one culture or individual to other. Ive learned about the language to
interpret what people mean, his or her precepts not if he or she uses the
correct grammar rules. Because some people can use a richly grammar
resources to say nothing and some others can have a poorly grammar
resources and have something to say and can express it.
I agree with Mr. and Mrs. Freeman about that the language must be
descriptive not prescriptive. Rules are good to regulate and optimize our
communicative skills call language. The problem is when rules replace the
purpose of the language. So many times the praxis makes us loose the
essence. Because of the time we invest in learning the rules we got conditioned
and we get to think that everything that is out of the rules is nothing and we
get to invalidate and dismiss speakers who make mistakes when speaking.
As l said before, rules are good; rules are important but not more
important than communication itself. We must study rules as tools to help us
express our precepts. We must primary study how to expand our ways to
communicate the things inside us.
In the future, l will continue teaching people to express their spirits. I
always encourage people to express what is inside them and not to pay too
much attention to rules, if they are speaking correctly; I always say to them
Say it as you have it in your mind. If l could measure the importance l give
to the essence and the rules l could give 95% to the essence and just 5% to
rules; because rules are void by itself. We have to search for rules and
vocabulary to express what we already have inside us not vice verse.
Concerning the theories I dont know if l match with Chomsky or Halliday;
l personally think that the language is both innate to the mankind and
developed and shaped by a social environment. It is innate because it was put
by the Creator in the man at very moment of the creation.
Then God said, Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so
that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the
livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along
the ground. (Genesis 1.26) (Bold print is for emphasis purposes)
If we see the bold printed phrase, God made the man with the same
components and conditions that he has so they could understand each other.
God put the language in man because he wanted the man to understand the
purpose he was created for (see Genesis 1.27).

Language is developed and shaped by a social environment because if

someone lives in a pessimist environment, the soul of his or her thoughts will
be pessimist. Social refers to people not to places. If you live in a Chinese place
youll talk like Chinese people, regarding the language and the perspective of
life.
All of this is what l have learned during these years studying English.