The Importance Of Language

Yesterday was a day that reinforced the absolute importance of language skills. I used Thai all day, it helped me find things, it helped me learn things, it helped me see (gain entry to) things and it helped me make photographs. I have definitely lost any shyness I might have once held about speaking Thai (back in 1999). Now for the slightest reason and sometimes for no reason at all I start babbling in Thai. Yesterday it helped me find new areas to photograph, meet and introduce myself to well over 50 people, maybe as many as 100. Most importantly it has helped me learn more about lives of the people I meet, hopefully the language skills also help me grow as a person and as a photographer. Heck speaking Thai has also got me out of potentially dangerous situations or at least helped calm certain people who might have interpreted my actions in a different way if I could not have spoken to them and explained things.