Eliminating Our Differences-Part One

Different we all may be, all of us share some things in common. We all live and breathe, we all need food and drink to survive, we all have parents biological or otherwise. Most of all, life for each and every single one of us has been a multitude of constant ups and downs, Nobody fails to encounter some sort of obstacle throughout our journey in life. Surely yet surprisingly, despite our many differences, we are all like pawns in a huge game of chess.

According to the movie "Forrest Gump", life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you are going to get. Some other familiar phrases include : Life is a gamble, Life is a stage, Life is a dream etcetra. These sayings has some relevant truth and meaning behind them if you think deeper about it.

Being part of the Human Race, we are all part of one body-the components that weave our universe. Everybody's them same regardless of our color, race, language, culture, social and living standards, rank, behavior, shape, size, strength, habits, character, tastes, religion and beliefs for we are all human, we are one and the same.

The things I have written may not all be agreeable to you and even may offend some people. I apologize in advance however I would like to reiterate that I sincerely mean no harm.

The truth hurts, I am aware of this but I cannot just sit back, do nothing and expect someone else to write something about the problems in society that we are all aware of and yet feel helpless to do something to help resolve them.

Life is short. One has to live it fully. I believe in the goodness of people, this is why I feel it is necessary for the world to open its eyes and face the music for it is not long before our lives begin to face before our eyes.

Culture and language are only two of the countless number of issues that form the barriers to communication and comprehension of our fellow man. We have different roots to our heritage and we are certainly born in either different states or even in different countries. Our roots serve as point of origin, our cultural and moral beliefs or ideas that forms us as an individual.

I migrated from the country where I was born to Singapore when I was merely three years old. Being young, I didn't have any problems adapting and English and Mandarin became second nature to me almost immediately. Moving to Australia was again a breeze for me. Language has never been a problem to me personally and I am very grateful. Several other immigrants however, find it extremely difficult to learn English mainly because they have lived all or most of their lives conversing in a completely different language based on characters rather than alphabets such as in the Cantonese, Mandarin, Japanese, Korean languages.

Have you ever thought about learning a completely new language that is completely foreign to you such as the Mandarin language? Is it going to be a walk in the park for you especially if you have to discard all that is familiar to you and begin your new life in an entirely new country where they spoke no word of English? Imagine the possibility? Try to put yourself in their shoes. Sure there are plenty of talented people who have traveled far and wide and mastered seven languages or more, most of us just aren't built this way. We are all built differently, each one having our own special gifts and talents just like we all have our shortcomings. Hence, instead of oppressing others to be more like yourself, why not try to listen and learn more about what people from a variety of different cultures and background have to offer and what we can all learn from one another.

What is Language anyway? It is just a means to communication. Languages may be different and not always comprehensible to all but everyone will understand the universal body and sign language that is common to us all.