Language. Everybody has one, from the multilingual scholar to the mute or deaf person’s sign language. It can bring people together in hundreds of different ways, whether it is to learn, to communicate or to make a special bond.

English is a universal language, one that it is almost a necessity to learn nowadays. Nearly everyone speaks it, whatever country you might be in, whether it is perfect or broken. But those people who have a different first language, who speak another language better than they do English, can they misuse it?

Take a school, for example. Different people from all over the world brought together into one place. These different people may have different language preferences based on what they were brought up speaking, regardless of what they are supposed to be using. And who’s stopping them from taking advantage of what they know? If someone really wanted to say something about another student (which would usually be said tactfully and respectfully behind their back), why couldn’t they use their own language right in front of them if their victim doesn’t understand it?

Assuming they know for sure – or even worry about – that their victim might understand. Just because they don’t use it, or the situation hasn’t come up for them to reveal what they know, how can they be sure they don’t?

A teacher can be just as guilty. They have no reason to pick on any of their students, but when teaching, if they feel more comfortable using their own language which one student happens not to understand, what happens should that student be too embarrassed to admit it? They shouldn’t have to be put in that position in the first place.

Language has more than one meaning. Language is a language divided by countries, such as English, Greek, German or Spanish, and also a language divided by a blurry line of what is considered polite and what is considered rude.

The major difference is, whereas opinion on the first division is affected by experience, the second is set by society, then even more influenced by each individual’s own sense of what words are polite or rude.

People make choices everyday. They choose what language to use, what to say, how to say it and whether it is right to say it. And almost everyone makes a different choice. But then again, if everyone looked the same, thought the same, dressed the same and everyone spoke perfect English, it would be a boring world, wouldn’t it?