ARTICLE: Language Learning for Short-term Mission Trips

Source: Everywhere2Everywhere

So, you are going on a short-term missions trip and you’re beginning to ask the question, “Should I work at learning the language before I go?

It is a question everyone seems to ask for which there is but one answer…

YES! Yes, you should!

Will you be proficient enough to have meaningful conversations? Probably not. Will you be fluent enough to share the gospel? Not yet. Will anyone, anywhere mistake you for a native speaker? Never!

But… Will your efforts teach you humility? Yes. Will your efforts honor your host culture? Absolutely. Will your efforts help you avoid embarrassing mishaps? They sure might. Will your efforts demonstrate the love of Christ? Yes they will.

* * *

The missionary anthropologist Charles H. Kraft was [once] asked, “How much time should one who goes to serve as a two month short-term missionary spend in language learning?”

Kraft responded: “Two months.”

The questioner continued, “What about one who stays six months?”

“Then spend six months in language learning.”

“And if he stays two years?”

“There is nothing he could do that would communicate more effectively than spending those two years in language learning.” Kraft continued, “Indeed, if we do no more than engage in the process of language learning we will have communicated more of the essentials of the gospel than if we devote ourselves to any other task I can think of.”

» Full article includes tips and links, including one to the classic Brewster & Brewster article with the story about Charles Kraft. It’s called Language Learning Is Communication—Is Ministry!

» See also Word Climber, a great new tool for capturing and learning new words, and especially helpful for those learning languages for which other language learning tools are scarce or non-existent.

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