Language Mix

Our kids love rainy season!

I find language fascinating. From the history of how languages develop, how they both shape culture and are shaped by culture, how dialects break off and how our brains process multiple languages… Language is a complex world of study.

Our return to the islands has meant diving back into language. Here are three little language anecdotes from this week.

Keeping languages straight— “Ngasi wanono,” the words were out of my mouth before I realized,  “wait, that’s the wrong language.” I quickly apologized for speaking the dialect of Volcano Island to Clove Islanders. They laughed off my mistake and assured me that it is really just one big language. Still, I never usually revert back to the language of Volcano Island, where we lived from 2009-20011. But we had spent four days on Volcano Island waiting for the boat to take us to Clove Island and somehow the old dialect was re-activated in my brain. Then we got back to Clove Island and our new landlords (who are very westernized) insisted on using French with us and at the same time we got an email from French friends. Another foreign language portion of my brain had to be re-activated. Sometimes my brain struggles to come up with the appropriate vocabulary on the spot (sometimes I stumble over the right English word even). It will get better, my brain just has to catch up. I was encouraged though to hear that one of the visiting linguistic consultants with decades of experience was trying to have a conversation with an islander by speaking Malagasy (language of Madagascar) before the other consultant pointed out that she was no longer speaking French.

Tom & kids take care of flooded area after storm

Celebrating local language— It had been going on for hours. An unending visit circling the same ridiculous conversation. Our one visitor with his big cowboy hat that reads “USA” always ventures on the ridiculous but tonight he kept coming back to an argument about differences in the local language as spoken by his home town (on the other side of the island) and the capital area (where we live). His statements showed a lack of understanding of the grammar of his own language and an unashamed bias for his hometown’s version. No one engaged him but he kept continuing and repeating his one-sided debate for what seemed like hours. Our other guest was Huomba.  Huomba is one of the most thoughtful young island men we’ve met and he is always very careful in his speech. He has a passion for his local language. He has been studying it and working with an association to promote literacy and writing in the local language. After a long time of silent listening and pondering, he formulated one thoughtful comment, “The differences within our language show that our language is rich.” After that he just sat smiling and shaking his head at his fellow-islander’s rantings.

Kids in a language soup— It was our first time meeting again with the Swiss group on the islands. We were together Sunday morning to sing and study together. Our kids and theirs constitute almost the entire population of white kids on Clove island. The kids range from around 2 years to our daughter at 8 years old. The Swiss kids’ mother tongue is Swiss German, our kids’ mother tongue is English, but all six kids have been thrown into a world where they are surrounded by the island language and French, with a variety of Arabic phrases thrown in for good measure. As adults we had three different mother tongues between us and we got by with a mix of English, French and local language. We looked over at our kids with no common language between them. They seemed to be getting on well…apparently you don’t need that much language to play!

Right now some of our friends and colleagues are in the thick of thinking about language very deeply as they consider the right words to use in translating important texts.  What our friend Huomba said resonates in my head, “Our language is rich.”  I think this is true of all languages.  Just like the people who use them, languages are examples of the richness and complexity of people and human societies.  Understanding and using a language is like unlocking a great treasure…there is beauty and wealth and blessing from God.  Language is rich and those who learn it can partake of those riches! Persevere, all you language learners out there!

PRAYERS ANSWERED
We’ve had a constant stream of visitors since coming back to Clove Island, sometimes it has been tiring but mostly it has been really nice to reconnect with our old friends and we’ve also been happy with some fledgling friendships with our new neighbors. We are extra thankful for the good weather we had for our boat ride last week as since then it has been storm after storm. Some of the storms have been pretty violent!  We are feeling much more settled in. We’ve unpacked almost everything and have most of our essentials now. We continue to be very thankful for our new house. A large kitchen cabinet fell from the wall as Megan was preparing dinner! It wasn’t mounted well. We lost several dishes and Megan has a bruised elbow, but we are very thankful that no one was badly hurt. The kids won’t start school for a couple more weeks (they will start with the new trimester). We are thankful that they will have some time to adjust to island life before starting local school.

PRAYERS REQUESTED
The consultants and our teammate have had a good and tiring week meeting and talking about translation. It continues this week! Pray for stamina through the long days and for good productivity. We are renewing our annual visas this week. We aren’t expecting any problems, but please pray that they get processed without incident. Our newest teammate is supposed to be arriving on Monday from the neighboring island— pray for her as she says goodbye to her village and teammates on the small island. Pray for her boat trip, for a calm ocean and uneventful travel. Pray for a smooth transition to life and work on Clove Island and that we’d be able to support well in the process.