Why Study Linguistics?

Linguistics is the study of language. We all use language all the time - it seems like it's the easiest thing to do. But in fact, when you first learned a language, you accomplished the most amazingly difficult task you will ever encounter. You can all see how difficult it is to learn a second language; and no matter how long we study and how hard we try, we will never achieve the same level of command of the language that a little baby achieves within a few years. Linguistics is about the facts we all know about language, but we don't know that we know them.

For example, we know that
          About what did John say that Mary had spoken?
is a good sentence in English, but
          About what did John say why Mary had spoken?
is not. But do we know why? We all use sentence like "Birds fly" all the time, but do we know what they mean? - Penguins don't fly!

Linguistics is about specific languages and their properties, but also about Language in general. Linguists study those properties that characterize all languages that are common, remarkably, to languages as different as English, Hebrew, and Japanese. It is about how our language is different from animal communication, and why it would be different from the conversations of aliens, if we ever meet them. It is about a uniquely human trait.