Dear Language Learners,

Recently, I’ve been trying to learn more Spanish. Each day I learn new words and phrases, but I’ll never know everything there is to know about Spanish. Even if I keep studying, even if I spoke only Spanish for the rest of my life, I’d still keep learning the language each day. I’ve spoken English since I was born, and I’m still learning something new about the language every day. This is because language always changes. Each day people coin new words to describe something or put something in a new way. There’s no correct form of any language. There’s only how people use it.

In school, we try to show you some of the ways that people use language. Language isn’t just reading and writing; we also use it in math. And as mathematicians, we must always use clear, precise language. We don’t just call an angle an angle. We call it an obtuse, acute, straight, reflex, or right angle. We don’t do this because it’s the right way to speak. We do it because we want to be understood.

Sincerely,

Mr. Heimbuck