Apart from the working of the Holy Spirit in people's hearts, much of the effectiveness of a missionary's ministry is tied to deeply knowing the language. It's not just knowing the right verb endings and grammar, but understanding how the nationals think. Knowledge of their local phrases, jokes, slang, and historical events and figures.
Learning Chilean Spanish has been a continual battle for me and the kids these past months. It's hard to see progress on a day to day basis, but when you look back several months, there is some encouragement in this life long progress.
The following video, was a "tongue-in-cheek" skit that exposes the tenancies of not knowing how to use language in context. It was extremely funny to me, cause I know that scenarios like this happen in real life.
While I am still laughing out loud about this video, there are many serious lessons to be learned.
Some of them include:
*You can never study the language enough. It's a lifelong task.
*Being an interpreter is a very difficult task
*If you ever are asked to speak through an interpreter, please eliminate the jokes, American illustrations, and phrases.
*Never wing it, especially if you have to translate Scripture in a sermon.
1 comment:
Splendid video, David - seems to me like a good conference one=)
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