I think there wasn´t a structured guideline for this post, so I´m just going to give my point of view on the importance of language.
My trip to denmark, taught me the importance of good communication skills... After experiencing so many translation mistakes and feeling so ashamed by them, I think I was traumatized to the point where communication became one of my biggest concerns (if not the biggest). Everytime I have a conversation now, I tend to first clarify the concepts used withing every key-word in order to get rid of the usual misunderstandings between people. These problems are caused by the egocentric belief that we all have the same connotation for every word, which is of course not true, due to tha many socio-cultural backgrounds that determine a person´s understanding of a word.
Language is the only tool we have, as animals, to communicate ideas to eachother consciously or not. Without the use of codes and symbols, is there any communication left? I don´t think so. We have been designed to codify and categorize absolutely everything that we see, It´s a tedious and dull process of absorbing and understanding what surrounds us, but we can´t deny it... We have made instictive actions codes for moods, colors codes for directions and random objects codes for the unconciouss mind, aren´t we just obsessed with symbols? Language has turned into a pathetic attempt of anthropogenic complexity, and we all feel the consequences of this ego-controlled behaviour in the vagueness of our words. The day when someone will describe and paint an apple just the same way as another person does, that´s when I´ll personally clap for humanity. Anyone can argue that individual perseption of language is a positive thing because it allows humans to be unique, but what purpose does the attempt to be "unique" fulfills if it is the direct cause of our social problems... ALL do to language. You can love it or hate it, commit suicide if you have been so affected by it, but you will ALWAYS depend entirely on codes and symbols. We are social animals (hermits have also been driven to isolation due to society), and without the ability to communicate our needs and superficial desires, we are doomed to a slow and painfull death.
So beware, language is both you best friend and your dreadful enemy.
