Over the past five years I have been extraordinarily lucky
to travel as much of the world as I have. I am by no means assuming that I have
seen everything there is to see, or done everything there is to be done, but I
feel for my age and background I have made a rather exemplary effort to broaden
my horizons. There are many things that
I could write about with regards to my travels and exploits but most would
simply be in the tone of the blog I wrote during my time in Africa; a list of facts and documentation of events
that bear little relevance to anyone but myself . What compels me to write (and
I feel when one writes one should be compelled) is the desire to share an acquired
opinion. Not facts and figures but simply a mentality that cannot be called a
consequence of any particular location or culture I have been exposed to,
rather a unique amalgamation of thought a person inevitably attains from the
people, culture and places I have been lucky enough to associate with.
As it turns out, living in a country for four years is a
long time. And if you want to fully embrace the culture, mannerisms, mentality,
dialect, politics or any other attribute of that region you simply have to immerse
yourself in your new home and never look back. I am writing this from the
confines of my parents’ house in York PA so clearly that permanent immersion didn't go according to plan. But the important thing is that when I moved to
the UK I embraced all of the aforementioned attributes as if I were never
leaving, as if I were changing my identity. This mentality gave me a rather unique
perspective and in hindsight the ability to increase my cultural awareness to a
degree I do not feel would have been possible during a ‘visit’ abroad. Predictably
one of the most drastic changes was my exposure to linguistics and language.
Not in the sense of cross-language knowledge but an introduction to British English and
all its subtleties. A greater frequency of
encounters with the likes of Oscar Wilde, P.G. Woodehouse, Stephen Fry, Longfellow
and Tennyson changed my perceptions of spoken and written expression. Words
were no longer used as a simple means of communicating an idea but as a means
of embodying expression.
Now when I returned to the U.S. after my five year sojourn I
was afraid that my new-found love of language and its many uses would be viewed,
at best, as muted pomposity. There have been instances in which this has
happened in the past few weeks but to my great delight an extended vocabulary
and knowledge of its use has been welcomed. I am by no means a proponent of unnecessary
complication when it comes to vocabulary, but I support an extended knowledge of
language and I personally take great pleasure in its usage. There are still scenarios
where my choice of terms and phrases is view as elitist and so I will still use
and enjoy ‘imperfect English’ because sometimes a setting or emotion requires a
deviation from classic prose. But there are few things I enjoy more in this
world than a good glass of wine and a conversation with a friend who shares my
passion for the glory of expression.
