Big Talk
In which linguistics teaches me something surprising about people
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The fact that the Kool Aid guy breaking through a brick wall requires a footnote makes me feel my age!
There's a bit in Terry Pratchett's Bromeliad trilogy (I think it's in Wings, the third book), where the portable sentient computer explains to the nomes that the sounds the big folk are making don't actually mean much, they're just a way to say I Am Alive And So Are You. Which was an incredibly helpful introduction to the concept.
(I loaned my copy of the Bromeliad to my friend Justin in high school. For several months thereafter when he saw me he greeted me with "I am alive and so are you.")