Do you remember the first word that you spoke? If you can, you are unusual. Suppose what your life was like during the first few months. I'm sure that it took your most time to eat，sleep and cry. As you grew older you slept less. Your parents would spend more time playing with you and talking to you. You watched and listened. You got to know that people make some sounds to go with some things.

      Then you began to cry and to make sounds you heard. And little by little you could make right sound for one thing.

      Then you got to understand the secret of the language. It is that a certain sound means a certain thing. One sound could be as good as another. But it is not so good as a word if everybody doesn't agree on its meaning. Only when a group of people make and use the same set of sounds of things they can understand each other. Their own language comes into being.

      After you knew the “secret” you learned words. Some of the words meant things such as cars, books, birds and stores. Some of the words meant movements such as come, fly and swim. And other words express things such as “I would like to make friends with you.” This is language that people can communicate by the way of language. That is to say, languages mean communication.

    On New Year's Day, many people eat special food for good luck.

In Spain and some Latin American countries (拉丁美洲国家), people eat twelve grapes at midnight on New Year's Eve一One grape for good luck in each month of the new year.

    Chinese people eat dumplings. Some are made with a coin inside. Everyone tries to find the coin for good luck and money in the New Year. Of course they don't eat the coin.

    Japanese people eat noodles on New Year's Eve and on their birthdays. It may bring them good luck and long life.