**FREEDOM**

Language to me is freedom, whether it be our own language or any other that we’ve learned along the way. Language gives you the freedom to express yourself to the fullest, especially when it’s your mother tongue. No matter how good you are in another language. Don’t matter how many languages you may speak, you might even be really fluent too. Yet, your mother tongue, your native and local language will forever hold the power of true expression.

Even if we talk about a foreign language, a language that you’ve learned along the way in life. A language that you might have fully mastered. These languages that we learn as we grow up act as more of a bridge I believe. A bridge that connects us.

Many see language as a tool, a medium that simply is used for communication. However, I believe it is quite more than that, it’s not as simple to me. Even though I can’t truly explain what it really is. Even if I found out its true "meaning" and gave it a "worthy" definition, that would just be my own perspective I believe. I believe we all have given language a different and unique definition in our minds.

English for example, from our schools, to the movies, TV shows, most of us learned English bit by bit from these sources, starting at a young age. For many of us it usually starts with English, but it may later on steer towards some other language according to our taste and likings.

If I talk about my experience with different languages, then I can say that I’ve at least “tried” to learn quite a few. Most of it being included back in school, so it was a must to explore and learn back then.

French was the language that was first introduced to us back in the fifth grade. Even though I found french to be quite interesting, especially the spoken part of it, but when it came to writing it didn’t feel as interesting. That is why I shifted more towards our second option I guess, which was Chinese. And since China was somewhat dominating and growing exponentially back then, I thought picking and focusing on Chinese would’ve been a better option. Also, most of the suppliers and manufacturers related to our family business were from China. So the choice was almost a no-brainer.

Yet, no matter how good I got in these other languages, English always came out on top, after Bangla of course. I guess it was just the dominance of English all around me, almost 24/7, hand in hand with our local version of Bengali that was used all around me.

However, after learning and building up on my “English skills” for over two decades now. I can still never express myself to the fullest in English, at least when it comes to the spoken aspect of languages. I might get close, yet most of the time something would still be missing. Unlike Bengali, my mother tongue. Bangla just provides me with almost an infinite amount of options and ways to express myself, no other language can compare, not even close.

No matter who you are, wherever you are, if given the chance, you will surely choose to speak in your own native language. You won’t even have to try, it will just take control when given the chance. At a certain point in life it truly becomes innate, inherent. That to me is freedom, being yourself, to express yourself and feelings to the fullest.

And I guess the part about freedom I mentioned earlier is simply present, because of our own mother tongue and how we fought for it as a nation. To me it’s freedom because it’s all hardwired into me that way from a young age. Since language has always been an important part in our culture here.

A nation that fought for its rights to speak its mother tongue. That is why I believe my mother tongue, Bengali and langauge itself, is freedom. I believe it is the same when it comes to any of us and our mother tongues. Every other language, to me all of it simply functions like a bridge, one that brings many of us together. A bridge that helps to us to communicate, know one another and grow as human beings.