Language Learning

" . . . I started to use them myself; then I took my newly acquired words and strung them into ungrammatical and stumbling sentences. Our neighbours were delighted, as though I had conferred some delicate compliment by trying to use their language. They would lean over the hedge, their faces screwed up with concentration, as I groped my way through a greeting or simple remark, and when I had successfully concluded they would beam at me, nodding and smiling, and clap their hands."

From G. Durrell's, My Family And Other Animals. p 38

Thomas & Elizabeth Brewster have long been proponents of language learning as a social link to the people of a new culture, "Language learning is communication."

The fact is that the learner posture might continue to be the most effective communication base not only for short-termers but also for those who invest their entire lives guests in another country. With a "learning is communication" perspective one can have the unique opportunity to learn important cultural knowledge in the context of community relationships - right where ministry opportunities are.

We should note here that we are talking about language learning, not language study. Millions of people have studied a language without learning it, yet billions have learned languages without studying them. Certainly over half of the world's people are multilingual, and relatively few have learned their additional languages in school. These spontaneous learners demonstrate that normal language acquisition is a social activity, not an academic activity.

The very fact that you bother to learn someone's language communicates to them that they are valuable.

Do you have examples of language learning, or language mistakes,
that created bridges to relationship?