If there is anything that we know for sure, is what Tupac told us, that “life goes on”, I’d like to add ‘no matter what’ to that truth. Another thing that we know for sure is that languages evolve and diversify, and academic consensus holds that more close to 90% of all languages spoken in the world today (23 April 2015) will become extinct by 2100. Yes, that means Zulu and Steve Hofmeyr’s beloved Afrikaans wouldn’t be around in 90 years from now, unfortunately. People are going to find new ways of not only communicating but of also signifying group identity, social stratification, social grooming and entertaining each other. That’s not surprising because for years, the human species has been acquiring and developing newer complex systems of communication, so sorry Oom Steve, Afrikaans won’t be around until the return of Christ, deal with that.
This is not a class in linguistics but I’ll tell you this; if you don’t want to be left behind, in case you make it to 2100, you better start learning newer languages, and no I don’t mean Mandarin, that’s an old language, you better start learning Emojis, the newest language of the 21st century. Thanks to Apple and other computing companies, the language is fast developing into a rich and complex language beyond ideograms and smileys, you can now have your Emojis in any race or ethnic group. The good news for Oom Steve is that there will be Afrikaans Emojis in the future and there will also be Zulu Emojis, now isn’t that racial harmony? Racial inclusion is a language we should all speak right? Especially in South Africa. Oh and there is also some good news for Mshoza and Kelly Khumalo, you can bleach your black girl emoji if you want…yay *inserts a smiley here*
The moral of the story is, it’s important to be knowledgeable, it’s important to keep up with trends and developments in every industry, to keep abreast of current affairs and world news, because we are living in a knowledge based economy, meaning what you know or don’t know is going to matter a lot more than ever before. According to my good friends at the Organisation of Co-Operation and Development: knowledge is now recognised as the driver of productivity and economic growth, leading to a new focus on the role of information, technology and learning in economic performance. So if you are wondering what the world would be like in the future, who will survive and prosper, I can assure that it will be a magical world judging by all the innovation in technology and it will be the people who understand and speak technology that will have the most fun, and you don’t have to miss out on that heaven, all you have to do is learn as much as you can, start by learning Emojis.