Tomorrow is Thursday: Language Learning

Five months of language learning.

Approximately 108 hours of class.

171 pages of grammar.

Over 1,000 vocab flashcards.

Here's some fun words/ phrases I have learned:

"Bueno como pan"- "[A person/ thing is as] good as bread"

"Dar a luz"- Directly translates to mean "give light" but really means "to give birth"

"Susurarr"- "to whisper" Also, that word to me sounds exactly like a game of hide and seek.

"Bienaventurado"- Looks like it would mean "good adventure" but really means "blessed" and that's close to the same thing.

"Sacarle la sopa"- Directly translates to "get the soup out" but really means "to interrogate"

Having never embarked on the huge, important task that language learning is, I've learned a couple of things more than the language itself.

1. Language learning is hard and will give you a headache.

You know when you go to the gym and workout really hard and the next day you wake up and are like, "Why does this muscle hurt? Is this even a muscle? I never even knew this muscle existed!" That is what language learning is like. It worked a part of my brain I didn't even knew existed. After a few hours this dull ache occurs that is mind numbing. The cure: coffee.

2. You can only study so long before you have a slight mental breakdown.

While memorizing the books of the Bible in Spanish, I broke down after three hours when I forgot the word "Lamentaciones."

3. The buddy system will save you from having excessive mental exhaustion.

For me at least, I found it a whole lot easier to not be in class alone. Having another student to learn helped me to know that I was not the only person in the world who didn't understand subjuntivo and pasado anterior. I'm sure you have also found that mutual suffering creates a special bond between people (think of finals week, or when there's no internet), and the same goes for language learning.

4. Learning a language with a completely different alphabet would be nuts-o.

Sometimes, you can guess at a word by making an English sounds Spanish, and it kinda works out (but not always). This would be impossible if it was a totally different alphabet.

5. Failure is part of the learning, mistakes are part of the journey.

Don't know what a word is? Go for it. Don't know what a person said? Ask them to repeat it.

It takes humility to do something knowing you might fail, but we should do it anyways. It takes bravery to make a fool of yourself, but we should do it anyways. Because when you do succeed, magic happens.

I think that when we get to Heaven, we'll all be able to understand each other. I don't know if we'll all speak in tongues, or if we'll just all miraculously understand each other, or what it'll be like, but I'm pretty sure that we'll understand each other. It's heartbreaking and lonely wanting to say something, but not being able to, or wanting to understand someone and not being able to. One day, every tongue, tribe and nation will be able to talk about how their hearts feel, and what makes their soul sing, and we'll be able to understand it. I can't wait for that day.

Please continue to pray for the ministries that are happening here. A new Bible study has sprung up seemingly over night and it is exciting to see that God is working! God brings people to himself in himself in really remarkable ways and it's a privilege to be a part of it.

Please pray for the new intern, Jesse, and I as we will be going to Ixtapa for the next two weeks and helping with a garbage dump ministry, a seniors home, and churches there. Pray for safety and that we will be able to minister where needed.

Please pray that in everything, we would have the love of Christ pouring out of us.

If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels,

but do not have love,

I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.

1 Corinthians 13:1

Thanks for praying. Prayer changes everything.