I came across an article in the Metro newspaper, that spoke about a new app that will be released next year. It is designed to translate sign language into text format, so that the hearing impaired and those able of hearing can successfully communicate.

This got me thinking about how more and more we allow technology to do all the work for us. But more importantly how we fail to learn things of which will benefit us and those around us, like for example languages. As English is seen as a “Universal” language, for those who are brought up speaking it there is a reluctance to learn new languages, even when visiting other countries.

So the ISM I’ve created is Language Exchangism, it is primarily about the assumption that is sometimes made that “Everyone speaks English”, which is merely an excuse for why not to learn other languages.

I want to look into our everyday use of communication, other than languages and how if we can communicate to someone who speaks a foreign language easily through visuals, gestures, tone etc then aren’t half way into learning their language, all that is left is the words.