Language and Cultures

The story of the Tower of Babel (again)

"And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.

Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech." (Genesis 11:5-6)

Next you will find some other questions about language and its strong relation with culture.
1. What does the image, and the story, suggest about the benefits of everyone speaking the same language? What are the drawbacks?
Of course, speaking the same language has the great benefit of being able to work together as a team, making this quite faster than if everyone were working alone. Personally, I think there are no drawbacks in everyone speaking the same language.
2. What does the story suggest about the social functions of language? 
Language is made to communicate through social groups, so having language make us possible to interact with people.

Other mythological stories of creation of different languages, such as the ones of Mesoamerica, Brasil or Africa, include cultural aspects, unique to their region. For example, in Brasil, the story talks about hummingbirds and Ticuna people, or in Africa they talk about Bantu tribe and famines. "A priori", I'd say that every single different culture has got its own mythological story about many diverse things; many as you can imagine (creation of language, seasons, lakes, and others)