Do you think in a language?

Learning a new language is hard, takes a lot of time and dedication, and I think we're close to it being useless.?I've learned my fair share of languages.?Something I think I'm slightly proud of.?During my lifetime, I've taken it upon myself to learn 7 languages.?I'm not saying that I speak 7 languages today, but at different life periods, I've been learning a language and being able to speak it (to some extent).?

Depending on where you are, and the root of the language, like Germanic, or Latin, it gets easier and easier to learn.?So if you already speak a Latin language like French or Portuguese, then learning Italian becomes a real piece of cake.?Remembering them is a whole other ballgame.?But having the same language roots helps memorising the words, as they're often similar.?

However, my view is that we won't need languages anymore.?Even today, I've had a vast number of experiences with people, where we didn't speak the same language.?Once, on a motorcycle trip through the deserts of Morocco, or Sahara as it’s called. My friend and I needed firewood as temperatures drop drastically during the night in deserts.?As we entered a village, we met a welder in the small village.?Using gestures, and pictures of wood, we were able to communicate that what we needed.?Half an hour later, we were following him into the dark desert roads. The journey ended in his family's house compound that was entirely built from soil and straw.?The welder refused to let us go and insisted that we stay in his house and eat a meal with him and his entire family.?He woke his wife up, and his newborn daughter, as well as his parents.?We all laughed, we drank goat milk and somehow communicated the whole night without speaking the same language.

In the last decade, translation services and devices have excelled in dramatic ways.?During my trips to Japan and China, I've used Google Translates' voice translation extensively to communicate with taxi drivers, hotel clerks and all kind of people where we lack a common language, but need to talk. Sure, having extensive conversations and building rapport with someone is still not possible, but my take, is that language as a whole will completely disappear in my lifetime.

For myself, I would not say that I think in a language.?Many people ask me which language I think in, but I don't think in a language.?When I read, or write I don't have what many others explain as a voice in their head saying it out loud in their heads.?Neither do I have a monologue going on inside my head as I'm making choices, or thinking about stuff.?Saying I think in images also feels wrong to say, but visual definitely supersedes my auditive capabilities and frameworks.?Perhaps the fact that I learned so many languages as a kid, and almost lost my hearing, meant that my visual understanding had to "take over" and thus became the way I think and structure my thoughts.

With the rise of online communication, we're sending emojis and gifs to express certain feelings and emotions that cannot be as easily explained in words.?Sometimes, the word for it doesn't even exist.?As technology progresses, we will slowly and gradually be able to create and share emotions, ideas and thoughts in a more visual way.?

"A picture shows a thousand words". So then a video consists of thousands of pictures, hence a million words.?So when we're able to create videos as fast as words, I believe we will be one step closer to telepathy.?Instead of describing how you feel, you can just show someone.?Instead of describing your new design for a silicon chip, you'll be able to think it, see it and then it instantly show it and know the other person has understood it exactly as you have.

For now we're still tied to this tried and tested method of communication, so I want to put more of my existing thoughts down more regularly. So if you've found this interesting, you can subscribe to the newsletter.