Sirens, silence

I rarely travel where the English language is no longer applicable, which is a shame since much can be learned through the practice of speaking without words. For instance about the discrepancy between language and communication. Although most words communicate, not all word usage is reducible to communication – for instance poetry, a careful arrangement of words that does not primarily communicate. But there is also the communication that has no words, built on body language, intonation, social context and the will to understand one another. If accompanied by the clatter of words not understood, this mode of communication gives rise to a peculiar kind of numbness in the mind.