Upon thinking about the history of writing, I have always wondered how it eventually developed across the globe. In the handbook of the History of Writing, we see that writing first started developing around 3500 B.C.E., and that art had already developed at least 30,000 years before that. We see its prevalence in many cultures around that world in that time period, which was really interesting to read.
Some of the most intriguing points to me include the writing origins in Chinese/Mandarin and the many issues technology has when coding well over 9,000 characters into one keyboard. Phonetics play a huge role in language, and some characters represent a sound, and there are others that have very similar sounds and completely change the meaning of words; if the computer coded it wrong or couldn’t code the inflection changes, it could pose an issue possibly.
Another idea that captivates me is the idea of idiomatic expressions. They exist in every language and yet can not translate into others without losing the meaning behind them. In the years that I have been learning Italian, I find that there are more and more, but I can never share them with my friends because, well, it’s another language that they don’t understand it the way that I do. But when we discussed it in class, it was cool to listen to what others thought about language translations/dialects/accents.
Autumn's Theories of Writing Blog 
I agree with your statement of idiomatic expressions and the inability to translate them. I remember when I first moved to the U.S, I was filing some paper for my teacher and she said “You’re a doll”. Not wanting to seem stupid, I just nodded. Then I began thinking of things that a doll is associated with. Small, feminine, fake, scary. Naturally I took on the more negative connotations and there was a clear misunderstanding between us that we didn’t even know about from then on. It’s such human nature to avoid confrontations and assume that we are right, so it’s hard to resolve any communications conflicts.
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It is amazing how early writing started and began in the first centuries of our upbringings. To me one of the most fascinating things about the idea of literacy and writing is the contributions it has made to economic growth. We often consider the state of our economy but never tend to dwell on what allowed our economy to morph to that being. A classic example can be observed with the Israelites and their utilization of writing and literacy to record the growth o the economy and the tariffs placed on various imports and exports.
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