MANIFESTO

The body has been ignored by Objectivism because it has been thought to introduce subjective elements alleged to be irrelevant to the objective nature of meaning. The body has been ignored because reason has been thought to be abstract and transcendent […]. The body has been ignored because it seems to have no role in our reasoning about abstract subject matters.

Mark Johnson, The body in the mind.

Signs is the arena of continuous class struggle

Valentin Voloshinov

Unlike what we have been taught it is  -an abstract rule cemetery, a mere tool to reflect the world, a software to be installed in our computer-brain-  a language is, on the contrary, a new hypothesis of the world and it can´t be fully grasped and learnt but by accepting this new point of view.

Language is inevitably bound to the specific design of our human bodies and to the way we connect with the spaces surrounding us; but, it also inhabits our bodies: it is a function of our brain and training our brain to speak a new language entails effort but also rest,  just like any other muscle.

Language is, of course, the main way to communicate with each other but communication has been long underestimated: there is a strong undercurrent of information flowing below meaning transmission: expectation, suspense, codes to keep or pass your speaking time, construction of your image, to mention a few. This is carried on by both speaker and interlocutor and it´s a non stop interaction: it´s just like two dancers improvising together.

Language is also a social product. It talks about your place of origin, sex, class, etary group, profession, etc. It is, thus, our most important emblem since it says who we are, where we belong.

Embodied, social, ideological. There is no neutral language.

To teach a language is to provide the students as many tools as possible to deal with and eventually to control all of these aspects.