David Couchman
David Couchman produces the 'Seize the Day' and Slipstream podcasts and edits the 'Facing the Challenge' courses. More...

Phil Prior talking to David about Focus's vision

Learning the language

Not all it's cracked up to be?

Session four of 'Facing the Challenge' talks about our need to become cross-cultural 'missionaries' to our own people, especially young people. Part of this is that we need to 'learn the language.'

One participant in the course recently critiqued this suggestion: he said that when we were teenagers, we had our own 'language' which we used with each other. If an adult tried to 'learn the language', we quickly changed our way of talking so that they could not understand us.

In that sense, if we try to use the language of youth culture, we shall be seen as patronizing.

He was absolutely right to make this point, and the recommendation about 'learning the language' in session four should not be taken in a superficial way to mean that we ought to learn, or use, teen slang.

Rather, we need to 'learn the language' in a more profound sense of understanding the patterns of people's thoughts, and how those thoughts are reflected in their patterns of speech. Here is how Eddie Arthur, of SIL International, describes the issue:

Words change their meaning. The phrase 'big brother' used to refer to an elder male sibling, then to a symbol of totalitarian oppression, now it's a popular TV show. Even when the meaning of a word or phrase is clear, it can conjure up very different images in people's minds. If I were to say the words 'violence on the streets,' some people would think about marchers hurling bottles and bricks and others about riot police beating protestors. Language and communication are not as simple as we like to think them. We can think we are saying on thing, but people may well be hearing something very different.
As Christians, we are used to the idea that certain people, missionaries and others, need to learn new languages in order to communicate the Christian Gospel. However, it is my conviction that the changes in language and culture that are happening in the western world mean that Christians in general need to become language learners if they are to adequately explain their faith to those around them. Take a simple phrase; 'you are saved by grace'. In today's world, this means that we are saved by a person called Grace - it can't mean anything else.
As language and culture change, western Christians, like overseas missionaries need to be language and culture learners so that they can find new ways to communicate the unchanging truth of Christ's message.

Eddie is a European Training Director for SIL International. He lived and worked in a cross cultural situation in Africa for twelve years and is a language learning consultant.