About Your Language...

As I’m working on my laptop, my friend Jim walks into the room. The following conversation ensues:
“Have you seen this kid on YouTube? The one who made all that Halo shit out of cardboard? That's dedication. Or like... autism,” I look up and tell him.
“I guess it's alright,” Jim replies; coldly adding, “It's not as cool as the shit I can make.”
“You can't make any shit.” I reply.
He pauses for a moment. “Oh yeah? Well, you know my friend Juan?
I made him out of cardboard.”
“Juan Ortega is not made out of cardboard!” I tell him in half laughter.
“It's true. I built him a cardboard house, full of cardboard furniture. And every night when he lies in that cardboard bed, he cries cardboard tears.” At this point I’m laughing as hard as humanly possible. Oblivious to my reaction, Jim adds, “Because the one thing - the only thing - I couldn't make out of cardboard... was love.”


Language can be very useful in many situations. Language can produce feelings; language can account events, and tell stories of past civilizations or people. Sadly, you won’t find the reason of the Maya civilization collapse on here, but you will better understand language.

Many people say that, “a picture is worth a thousand words.” I like to think of it as a thousand words are worth a picture. This way, you don’t need a canvas or brush to paint portraits for people. You can use your words. And you, the artist, can emote feelings to your audience. Of course, you don’t have to use expletives in a random anecdote to make someone laugh or smile. One must simply try and paint a vivid masterpiece, so to speak, by using one’s words, (one’s language) and hope for the best.

For example, say you’re a guy trying to express your feelings to a girl you fancy. Some of my friends’ approaches might go something like this:

“Hey. You’re really hot. You wanna go make-out?”

Girl leaves, disgusted.

As you might expect, he may not be the most linguistical guy in the world. However, he might have gotten a better result had he approached her something like this:

“Hello – I’m sorry, I just couldn’t help but notice how beautiful you look tonight. Would you mind having some dinner with me later?”

If the guy had followed this example, the next phrase out of his mouth could have been, “Good morning.”


Having read this, hopefully you will start listening - actually listening - to what you say to other individuals, and not just blurt out something unnecessary and profane for the simple shock value, like so many unoriginal comedians do nowadays, ahem, Dane Cook. From now on be more alert to how other people talk around you, and see the kind of mood they’re in, or what they are feeling. Here are my “thousand words”; I’ll leave it up to you to paint the picture.