Why language is a uniquely human gift

Growing up as a child in Hong Kong, I struggled with every subject in school except for English because I believed I had an innate ability and natural curiosity for it. During my teenage years, I took up French as a requirement for my school in England. Though I didn't pursue any cultural interests, there were unavoidable influences. In college, I became aware of my interest for languages and signed up for German (because I was curious), Spanish (because my ex-boyfriend was from Guatemala), Japanese (because I thought it would be fun), and Mandarin Chinese (because I needed an easy subject to pull up my GPA). I almost took up Russian because I thought it would be useful for business. All of these "experimental language pursuits", in hindsight, were gateways for me to learn about different cultures without traveling abroad as I was a poor college student. Skip to 10 years later, I am now an English teacher in Japan and an on-and-off serious learner of Japanese. I still couldn't truly conclude the reasons of my pursuits except for that I know it makes me feel "wholesome" for the lack of a better word. Alas, my good friend, Tom, whom I have had numerous discussions on the learning of languages, especially in Japanese, recently sent me an article of how languages influence cultures and thoughts. At the end of the article, the author was able to articulate the depth of my thoughts in one paragraph:

"Language is a uniquely human gift. When we study language, we are uncovering in part what makes us human, getting a peek at the very nature of human nature. As we uncover how languages and their speakers differ from one another, we discover that human natures too can differ dramatically, depending on the languages we speak. The next steps are to understand the mechanisms through which languages help us construct the incredibly complex knowledge systems we have. Understanding how knowledge is built will allow us to create ideas that go beyond the currently thinkable. This research cuts right to the fundamental questions we all ask about ourselves. How do we come to be the way we are? Why do we think the way we do? An important part of the answer, it turns out, is in the languages we speak."

Hallelujah!