The Cost of Communication
By now most if not all of you have read our recent newsletter (February 2008) where we talk about our new Japanese tutor. Being able to study with Michiyo-sensei has been a great opportunity, but has also presented some real challenges. Going into it, we were told that learning Japanese would be difficult. This has proved true in some respects, but in many ways it is just the challenge of learning any new way of communicating. One of my first thoughts when we began to study Japanese was that I wanted to focus on some basic vocabulary. Then I started to think about it… which words are basic. Here are some options for your consideration:
Basic Verbs (walk, talk, sit, stand, eat, sleep…)
Basic Foods (meat, vegetable, water…)
Colors (red, blue, green…)
Weather (cold, hot, rain, sun, wind…)
Relations (father, mother, brother, sister…)
Small Everyday Objects (pen, pencil, watch, wallet…)
Large Everyday Objects (car, house, room, street…)
Locations (town, city, road, hill, valley…)
I am sure I could go on and on, but you get the point that even to make a list of basic words could get quite lengthy. Even the lowest level proficiency test for Japanese requires the memorization of over 700 vocabulary. Communication is a tricky thing. For me, learning language seems even more daunting because of all the big fancy words I like to use in English. To get to that level of proficiency in another language (or even just the depth to be able to preach, teach, and share spiritual things) will take years.
With all of that in mind, cross-cultural communication sometimes doesn’t seem worth it. Let’s just stay home and talk to Americans. However, my mind is drawn to the lengths that God went to share with us.
What shall we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us? Since he did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t he also give us everything else?
Romans 8:31-32
The gospel was not originally communicated in English. It was not even originally communicated in Greek and Hebrew. It was originally communicated in God’s love through the life of Jesus Christ.
Those around the world who have yet to encounter the gospel and have it impact their lives in a significant way deserve to hear it in their primary language (what has been colloquially called their “heart language”). The effort that it takes us to learn to do it, and learn to do it well is insignificant compared to the effort to which God went to communicate the message with us.