Our “live” language course is in full force with many details we can not post on the internet (but if you call us we would love to share our experiences with you) as to not ruin it for the next classes following us. In this course we are going deep into the mind of a “tribal person”. Our teachers who have experienced other cultures, have lived among a unique people group, and have learned language and culture get “into character” during this time. The teachers put on wigs, sunglasses to cover their eyes, wear old clothing, put fake piercings in their noses, and live in a “mock” village, with many sounds and noises that are familiar to the people group they are imitating. These teachers know their roles very well and at times I think they could be in a Hollywood movie and fit right in! Their acting is very convincing and they know the culture as if it was their very own.
When we are in the village we learn some vocabulary (greetings and basic phrases), try to become “friends” with the locals, observe every detail, take note of the surrounding village and where everyone lives, and even the quick little phrases they mumble to us as we leave, we must write everything down as it is flurried at us. We then have to quickly go back to our class debrief while everything is fresh, then plug it all away in this computer software that helps process language and culture data…the mission calls it CLAware, I call it a virus 🙂 (because it can make your computer start typing in phonetic symbols or do random things).
As was previously stated, each person in the village speaks a unique language with a mixture of other regional vocabulary; with a sprinkle of English as the “trade” language it is not uncommon for us to hear a minimum of four different languages and at times even up to seven. If that was not confusing enough, we also do some Indonesian language learning during the week to advance our knowledge for the field God is leading us to. On top of that several times a week Seth does a live Greek language study with a teacher. Add in the sporadic use of Spanish in the house with Nicole’s upbringing in Colombia, life can get rather interesting.
Stoking The Fires 