LANGUAGE SCHOOL
Learning our first language is a natural
process; we do it without even realizing it.
Our mothers are our primary teachers and
they love us and are very patient. Missionaries
get the privilege of going through the whole
process again when they move to their country
of service. This second time around privilege
is done with children and adult responsibilities
included (it is a lot easier when we are toddlers).
Spanish is spoken throughout South
America, but each country is different in their
vocabulary, syntax and idiomatic phrases. Each
country will also mix its culture in with its
local dialect. A message preached in Venezuela
is difficult to understand in Argentina unless
one changes some words and phrases. Some
common words in one country are vulgar
words in another that no Christian would utter
let alone a preacher!
Learning to speak a second language is a
very humbling experience—one for which you
should pray for your missionary. Due to politics,
health, support or change of field, a missionary
might have to go through this joyful experience
multiple times. My wife has written about one
of my many “linguistic laughable moments.”
Learning another lan-
guage is not always fun
or easy, but it is interest-
ing! Spanish is an easy
language, linguistically speaking, to learn. It is
a phonetic language where, unlike in English,
the phonetic rules rarely have exceptions. Gram-
matically, it is ordered and organized around
the verbs, so once you learn the forms, you just
begin to add vocabulary and work on accents.
The most difficult for me is the subjunctive forms
of the verbs. Arrggghh!
I did not appreciate this aspect of the Spanish
language until much later when I would need
to learn the Ye'kwana language (Tribal Indian
language of the Amazon in Venezuela). The
Ye'kwana language is everything the Spanish
language is not. Add to that the fact I have no
language instructors or anyone around me who
even knows what a verb is. The grammar is
different in that the nouns are “possessed” and
the language is built around the nouns. I used
to say that the nouns were possessed all right,
DEMON possessed!
When we first arrived in Venezuela, my
husband took the pastorate of Iglesia Bautista
Number 1, 2012
BIMI WORLD
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