The Tower of Babel

I'm fascinated by languages.  I better be, right? Being a language teacher, and all...anyway...I wish I had more time so I could pick up another one.  French has always seem very intriguing to me...so fancy and with such "je ne sais quoi"...but the time hasn't come for me to do that yet.  In the meantime, my thirst for language has to be quenched by oscillating between English and Spanish, which keeps me plenty busy.

I love how language and culture intermingle to the point that, to learn another language well, you have to also study the culture of the people who speak it.  Otherwise, you would never, fully understand why things are said the way they are, which means, you'll never have strong proficiency. 

For example, in Latin American Spanish, we have two ways of saying "you":  a formal "usted" and an informal, "tú". English speakers think of this as a nuisance invented by Spanish teachers just so they can take points off on tests willy-nilly.  Guess what?  There is a cultural reason, deeply rooted in who the Spanish speaking people of the Americas are. 

The Spanish speaking cultures in Latin America are very hierarchical.  There is a clear distinction between who we must address formally or informally.  Hispanic Moms spend most of their time tirelessly teaching their children respect, so when they go out in the world, they know exactly who they can address informally and who they must address formally.  Their future livelihood depends on them knowing this distinction.  If the now-young-adult kid shows up at a place of employment and addresses the boss with "tú" without the boss' permission to do so, it is certain the kid is not going to keep that job for very long.  One can really offend people by not adhering to the unwritten rules of formal v. informal in Latin America. 

When Americans traveling to Spanish speaking countries in Latin America decide to try their Spanish with those they want to do business with, and use the informal format to address them...not only their Spanish speaking counterpart would think they are being rude, but they would misinterpret it as if Americans just don't care.  They might smile and nod.  Inside, though, they are already dismissing the deal due to the perceived lack of respect.  Hence, the cultural ties to the grammatical rule that American Spanish-language students don't think it's important or relevant. 

I'm not sure why I'm talking about this.  Perhaps, it is because the semester is about to start and I'm prepping for class.  Or maybe, it is because I was reading about the Tower of Babel and the language connection emerged naturally.  But it is always intriguing to me why God decided to confused language and make it so it is different in each region.  You'd think He'd like to keep the harmony of all speaking the same language and understanding each other without the need for deep study of each other's cultures and linguistics...I'd be without a job, but...you know what I mean?  It'd be so much easier to get along.  Why did He purposely confused the language to separate people?

I don't pretend to know the mind of the God Most High.  Not at all.  But, reading the passage in Genesis 11 one more time, I imagine that God's decision might have had something to do with men's actions.  Instead of building an altar to the LORD to worship Him, and to exalt all that He had done for humanity, giving Him all the glory, humanity set out to build a tower that would be the physical representation of their might-an altar to themselves to exalt their own accomplishments:  

Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves... (Genesis 11: 4a)  

They feared that if they didn't build this monument to self, they would be scattered over all the earth.  How far are our thoughts from the mind of God.  It was exactly the opposite.  Building the tower was, precisely, what caused what they feared: not only God confused the language, but He scattered them over all the earth.

We are so proud.  We build things and create things and believe it is all because of our superior intellectual abilities...when, in reality, we are nothing without God.  All we have and make is because God gave us the capabilities to acquire and perform.  It doesn't matter what language or culture we speak and live in, God's hand designed it all to the last detail.  From the nuances of Spanish to the precision of English, the credit of it all belongs to God.  And if we were to build something, it should be an altar to express our thanksgiving for His presence and His Love...not a tower so we could pretend to be gods.