I was never the type to keep a journal. My thoughts and ideas often stayed just that, fleeting and ephemeral, never materialising into something more. But when I became a web developer, I came across countless articles that touted the benefits of writing and blogging, both as a means of sharing knowledge with others, as well as an avenue to “get your name out there”. It’s about a month and a half since I started this little personal project, and I realise that I rather enjoy writing. I may not have interesting things to write about everyday, but the more I write, the easier it gets to articulate those ethereal wisps of ideas into something tangible.

Writing forces you to structure your thoughts into coherent sentences. For someone like me, who has the attention span of a hyperactive five-year-old and a mind that runs at a million miles per hour, I often find that my thoughts form much faster than I can express them. I used to tell my friends that I wish there was some way to transmit my thoughts to their brains telepathically all at once, thus saving me the effort of trying to convey them one at a time.

I feel that one of the key factors that allowed human beings, as a species, to take over the world, was our ability to communicate complex ideas to one another using language. I find it fascinating that we managed to develop this mechanism of communication, hence my great interest in anthropology. But that’s another topic for another discussion. My point is, the ability to articulate one’s thoughts and ideas clearly is a very powerful skill to have.

You could have the most innovative game-changing idea of the 21st century, but if you are unable to explain it to the people around you, odds are this idea is not going to come to fruition. Often, it is not the greatest ideas that get implemented, but those which are best explained and understood. I have been lucky enough to have grown up in a family that encouraged reading. I was taught to read at an early age, and there were always plenty of books around the house. I have an older sister, whom I consider linguistically gifted, and writes really well. Growing up in such an environment probably did help me develop a certain level of eloquence, not to mention a decent-sized vocabulary.

Having mastery in a language not only helps you articulate your thoughts well, it also helps you understand others better. The human brain is great at filling in the gaps, provided you have sufficient context to work with. In this case, being fluent in a particular language. A native speaker would find it easier to understand somebody with a thick accent as opposed to someone who just picked up the language three months ago. It doesn’t matter what line of work you’re in, you will get ahead much faster if you can speak and write well.

With all the recent hoopla about the importance of learning to code and granting programming language credits, I still feel that the most important skill we can teach in school is the ability to communicate your thoughts in words. Knowledge can only be shared if it can be understood by others. The sharing of knowledge is what enabled human beings to take over the entire planet. Don’t underestimate the power of words. Language is what makes us uniquely human.