A day in the life of a language learner
01/11/2011 12:00 pm Admin John Watts <au-mediaSPAMFILTER@omf.net>
I sat there, dreading the inevitable. It had been a long day. I had tried to fit in, tried to understand, tried to get to know people. I had eaten my fish, my pickles, and my dish of unidentifiables. I had had my bath with 20 other girls and lined up to clean my teeth with them. I was well and truly ready for bed!
My heart beat quickened in anticipation and I furiously tried to make sense of what the others were saying. I glanced around the room. It was Kohei’s turn. What was he saying? Someone in his group had shared about something.... But was it a good thing I wondered? Was he encouraged? Or was he discouraged?
All too quickly the baton was passed and the next person started sharing... he was speaking but his mouth hardly moved. What on earth was he mumbling about??
Would they ask me to share, I wondered? What could I possibly share?? I had spent the day grasping at words here and there, trying to put them together...what if my comments had no relevance to what they were saying? ... Or even worse, would they ask me to pray?? How could I pull that off? I had been in Japan long enough to know that eventually my turn would come - it was only a matter of time.
Desperation began to take over. I couldn’t focus on what was being said nor could I collect my thoughts in English, let alone Japanese.
And then at last, the dreaded words - …… Sarah sensei …... It was my turn!
Not for the last time, I wondered why God brought me here...
Studying another language involves far more of a person than simply their intellect. Our ability to communicate impacts our emotions and our sense of who we are. Insufficient competency in a language makes us feel vulnerable and sometimes even terrified! It clearly hampers our effectiveness in ministry.
One thing I often struggle with is God’s apparent lack of efficiency. It is not at all efficient of him to send a native English speaker to Japan to share his good news. Language is such a crucial element in relating to others and communicating the gospel and yet it takes many years to become truly fluent. God, however, sees the big picture and is concerned with far more important things than efficiency.
When you pray for new missionaries, don’t forget to pray for their emotional well being as they try and learn their new language. How they feel can effect their language learning, but more importantly, it can lead them to question God’s wisdom in sending them. Above all things, pray that the process of language learning will be a stimulus to grow the missionary’s faith in our Sovereign God.
An OMF worker, Japan