Don’t say “teach!”

Nora McNamara

The most important thing when you’re looking for a language parent to help you speak their language is for you to change your language.

What do I mean?

Take words like

teach, study, teacher, learn, class, tutor

completely out of what you say to someone you’re talking to.

Use words like

friend, help, play games, speak, understand

instead.

Why?

When you say “teach” people immediately think “teacher.” That’s a title that’s earned in a lot of societies, and it’s likely the person you’re talking to won’t have it. It’s also likely better if they don’t. Read why here.

How have you found friends to help you with their language?

The fastest and easiest way to sound more like a native speaker!

Nora McNamara

When we’re learning a new language, we all have to pause and think in the middle of sentences, right?

So, what do you say while you’re pausing? “Ummmmm,” perhaps?

Is that what host people are saying?

Nope.

Listen and observe and see what they say when they’re pausing. In some places in Spanish it’s “este,” where I lived in France it was “euh.”

Once you’ve noticed what host people say, say that! It’s amazing how much more native-like you’ll sound, immediately!

So, how do people fill in pauses in your new language?

How I grew to love 3 hour church services!

Nora McNamara

This is easy.

Get permission from the leaders, then make a quick recording of the music in the service every week.

Go home, get a friend to help you understand the words as much as possible, at least the gist of the song.

Listen to and sing along with the recording.

Repeat as you hear new songs.

This made all the difference in the world to how I experienced church in Benin!

Oh, and bring a frozen water bottle in a towel to rest your wrists on during the sermon to keep yourself cool.

How have you learned to enjoy church services in your host culture?

The worst question to ask someone about their language!

Nora McNamara

You’re talking to someone in your new language. You hear a word you don’t understand. You get the person to explain it to you. The meaning sounds a lot like another word you know in the language.

Temptation strikes.

You ask, “What’s the difference between these two words?”

NOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Why is this the worst question to ask? Because people don’t think about their languages this way.

Here’s an example. What’s the difference between little and small?

You could Google it and come up with a technical answer, but you probably don’t know it off the top of your head.

You just know what sounds right.

And that’s how we want to be in our new languages, knowing what sounds right.

So, what should you ask instead?

“Can you give me some examples of other places you’d use that word?

“Would you use it in this sentence? How about this one?”

So tell me-what has your experience asking questions like these been?

3 of My Favorite Books This Year–Have You Read Any of These?

3 of My Favorite Books This Year–Have You Read Any of These?

Nora McNamara

Several years ago, my ministry shifted radically from service in Benin, West Africa to equipping missionaries all over the world. Life was changing fast, full of new challenges, and often a jumble of exhilaration, sleepless nights, and a lot of prayer!

One thing that God has used to equip and anchor me through this season was a good book. Actually, there were several!

These are the books I’ve recommended most this year. There are tons of great titles out there, but these were really meaningful to me.

Book 1: The COACH Model for Christian Leaders

Coach and speaker Keith Webb teaches Christian leaders how to create powerful conversations to assist others to solve their own problems, reach goals, and develop their own leadership skills in the process. Whether leaders are working with employees, teenagers, or a colleague living in another city, they’ll find powerful tools and techniques to increase leadership effectiveness.

One of my favorite quotes from this book was “Christian coaches acknowledge the working of the Holy Spirit and trust Him to be guiding and leading the coachee through many different means.” This idea has helped me to entrust the people I help to God, and remember who is really responsible for their success!

If you’d like to get it on Amazon, here’s the link.

Book 2: Prayer: Forty Days of Practice

This unique book guides you to pray in deeper and more authentic ways. The short prayers and thought-provoking imagery, interspersed with contemplative reflections and suggested practices, will stir, inform, and encourage you. 

One of my favorite prayers from this book was “May love be stronger in me than the fear of the pain that comes with caring.” I found it beautiful and challenging!

If you’d like to get it on Amazon, here’s the link.

Book 3: From the Inside Out: Reimagining Mission, Recreating the World

The evolution that has taken place in the world of mission over the last twenty-five years has left many Christians asking brutally honest questions about what we do and why we do it. Are we doing more damage than good? What does it look like to truly love and serve the marginalized in an authentic and effective way? What, actually, is the gospel and is it truly good news?

One of my favorite quotes from this book was, “If a place is treated simply as a cross-cultural experience then we run the risk of commodifying that place for our pleasure, and our ministry there will likely colonize more than liberate. When God plants us in a place, that place becomes our teacher.”

If you’d like to get it on Amazon, here’s the link.

What are some of your favorites? I’d love to hear them — especially if you’re in a season of transition. Leave a comment below!

How do I start learning a new language?

Nora McNamara
Sound sorting image
Me doing a sound sort in Kikamba

A colleague just emailed me this question

I was intrigued with your confidence that one could train one’s ear to distinguish sounds and that would give a boost to enabling language development.  (Maybe you did not say that at all, but that is more or less what I heard…) So, how is it again that I would start?

So, here is a lovely list of links that answers that question! The last link is the one that is specific to ear training for distinguishing sounds, but you can’t start there, if you’re just beginning in a new language. First you need to lay the groundwork, as follows.

  • First watch these 2 videos to orient you to the big picture and to encourage you that you can make immersion happen anywhere.
  • Then enlist a prayer team and get a language parent
The Four Things You Need to Learn Any Language
You Sent Out Flyers to Find a Language Parent?
How do I find a language parent?
  • Prepare your  materials
Materials for Beginning to Learn a New Language
http://tinyurl.com/growingparticipatormanuals
  • Watch these videos to help you understand the games in the manual
  • After you’ve played listening games for about 30 hours, you start adding in this sound sorting game. You want to get your ear tuned into the language before you start this, that’s why we don’t do it from day one. If you’re interested, you can read more about it here.

Was this helpful to you? What questions do you have? I’d love to answer them!