A sketchy draft.
Usually, we think of the ability to communicate as the goal of language learning. You learn the language, talk to people, do work, appreciate culture, and so on. The goal of learning a language is to use language. One of my favourite feelings, however, is being outside of any particular language. There is a dizzying sense of being nowhere in particular. There is no inner monologue. You know nothing. You can express nothing.
Imagine, for a moment, that you’re watching a rock band. They’re playing a song. You’re grooving along. You love this song. The guitarists stop. They unplug their gear to switch guitars. What song are they playing in that moment?
I think that there is a similar even when you’re trying to communicate in a new language. If you have a strong inner monologue, it is probably in your native language. You subtly talk to yourself all the time silently. It goes on so much that you don’t even recognize it as a thing1. Anything you think, you think in words. And then, when you switch to a new language, you don’t have the words anymore. Where does the thinking go?
Meditation is “neat” because it can make you aware of this dialogue. It turns out that stopping your own inner dialogue by pure will power is hard. ↩︎
Published: Jul 10, 2025 @ 21:13.
Last Modified: Jul 10, 2025 @ 21:44.
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