November 21: Writing Prompt #325 A Bird, A Plane, You!

You get to choose one superpower. Pick one of these, and explain your choice: the ability to speak and understand any language, the ability to travel through time, or the ability to make any two people agree with each other.

I would definitely choose the superpower ability to speak and understand any language.  Why?  As a former English as a Second Language instructor, I would often wish I could explain a difficult concept to my students in their own language to help them understand.  There’s also a connection automatically made when you can even attempt to speak the native language of those you are communicating with. When I first arrived in Madrid, Spain for my college studies, we were told that as much as possible, we were to use Spanish for everything. Even our host families were not allowed to use English with us.  We only spoke English to each other (our classmates and roommates; otherwise, it was Spanish).  I went to Spain knowing absolutely no Spanish, so it was a total immersion experience for me. Within the first week, I walked into a store to buy something, and when I did, I spoke to the cashier in Spanish (pretty limited, broken Spanish, but Spanish nonetheless), and even though the cashier spoke English too, he truly appreciated the fact that I was trying to speak to him in his native language and not just expecting him to speak mine. I know this because he told me so. 

Effective communication is so crucial in our everyday lives, and so many misunderstandings are made far too often when we all speak the same language. Speaking totally different languages just complicates the communication process.  I think so many problems can be prevented and solved through proper communication.  We can just as easily cause problems by not communicating well, so how awesome would it be to have the gift of speaking multiple languages!