Obsolet field

It’s Sunday, and a father is cooking breakfast. In their respective rooms, his wife and daughter are sleeping. His wife had worked late the day before, so it was unlikely that she would get up soon.

“Good morning,” said the daughter, who had just gotten up. “Good morning, Sofia, please set the table for two.” “Ok, you know? I wanted to ask you something. What does the word ’language’ mean?” “You’re looking at grandpa’s documents again, aren’t you?” “Yes, you know I find the paper interesting.” “Well, I’ll tell you what it means, but while you’re at it, prepare some lemon water. Remember to put the water first, then the sugar, and finally the lemon.” “Yes, I know, it’s a matter of chemistry.”

The father serves two portions and starts heating tortillas. “You see, language is a concept that is falling into disuse, but it’s a very important one that you will surely learn soon in your history class. In the times of your grandpa’s parents, we didn’t have a brain processing unit. And having any chip in the body was a thing of science fiction, at that time cyborgs were imagined as humans with machine parts but nowadays we are all one of them. And although we don’t have bionic arms, we have ultra-microcomputers that change the way we perceive our surroundings.

For example, the concept of infrared light or ultrasound also existed before, but now our modified eyes and ears have expanded capabilities to see and hear broader spectra than before. And a branch of science was invented to transfer the improvements through computers to the genetic field. So that in the future we won’t need chips to hear better.

But sorry for beating around the bush, but this is where the language comes in. In the distant past, human groups formed societies that were isolated from each other, and each one, for that reason, spoke differently. And even those who spoke the same, if they were separated and a lot of time passed, they would speak differently among themselves, so that when they were reunited again, they could not understand each other. In other words, when they met again, they spoke a different language, and that’s why they couldn’t understand each other.

Now there is no need to learn languages, because now a translation process occurs within us, so it is no longer relevant to know the language of another person to communicate. The father got up from his place and started washing his plate. “Come on, finish eating and pass me your plate.” “If that’s true, does it mean that we all speak the same language after having had the chip for more than a generation?” asked the daughter.

“Well, I wish it were that simple, but that was not allowed. Some countries with a national identity that depended on the language decided not to unify the language. So the documents and the sounds we make if we are in that country are those previously chosen by the government. In Mexico and the United States, it’s Spanish; in Canada, it’s French. Some of us believe that if it weren’t for this advancement, Canada would also speak Spanish. As they didn’t want to speak English, it would have happened as it did in the United States, where there came a time when everyone spoke Spanish.

“Ah, and what language do mom and you speak? Spanish, I guess, like me at school,” said the daughter as she got up to wash her plate. “Well, Mexico is much more flexible, and at 18, you can choose. You see, that’s how I met your mom; we are among the few who decided to speak Maya from Guatemala. You speak Spanish, and in your school, everything is in English just because of the school’s tradition. No one has removed the software to translate what we see and hear, but it is said that if we did, we would speak the languages we interact with often. For example, you also know Maya because it’s the language we speak at home.

At that moment, the mom appears and asks: “What’s for breakfast?” in perfect Guatemalan Maya.