“I shall never, never, never learn the Japanese language. You may put it on my tombstone: expired in despair. I am in the middle of my language lessons, and have stopped short to tell you so…it is more important for me to warn you to send out no more missionaries to a land with such a language, than to go on longer trying to learn it.” Amy Carmichael, written when she was a missionary in Japan
This made me laugh out loud and made me feel like I have found a friend! To know there is another missionary, a highly respected one, who felt as dramatic as we do sometimes. I wouldn’t say that I’ve quite felt the same despair as Amy, I’m not learning Japanese either, but it can feel so slow!
Mudzi, m’modzi, madzi, mwazi…say that 3 times fast.😆 One of those means water…one means blood, so definitely don’t get those confused! They have a few like that. One little change, and the entire meaning changes. One I just recently learned was that if you accidentally say “it’s raining” incorrectly, it could mean instead “I’m undressing”. Eek
I think language can be one of the most frustrating things for a missionary! There’s not only the construction of sentences, all the forms and prefixes, suffices, etc, which change who you are referring to and tense…but also you have to try to stop thinking with your English understanding of how to construct those sentences. I have also mixed these up. Coming home from the church plant in the other village I was trying to talk with one of the ladies. She pointed at a house. I said, “Your house?”…at least, that was what I was trying to say but accidentally said, “My house?” She understood and acted like she didn’t even notice.
A few Fridays ago coming out of Bible study, a gentleman greeted me differently, so I just replied with what I know. Then he said something else. I got a confused look on my face and looked over at Shadrich. Everyone started laughing and he scolded the smiling man, then told me I had answered fine….the man had purposely greeted me in Sena then Portuguese (we are learning Chichewa)! It made me feel more at home to know they were comfortable picking on me!
I don’t get many opportunities to practice, except with the children because it seems like wherever I go, I’m always with the children. But I have found that they are the perfect ones to practice with and are always willing to help teach me how to say something. Some evenings, when I’m not too exhausted from my duties, I sit on the porch while they all play with the outside toys. There are toy dishes and food. And I practice a few words or phrases as we “cook and eat.”
Learning a new language is definitely a humbling and, at times, frustrating process. But may the Lord open our mouths that we may speak and give us understanding!
(The kids with our language teacher.)
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