When “Getting There” Means Never Arriving
Before we started full-time Japanese study, I had this subconscious mindset that if we spent X number of years in earnest language study, we would get to the place where we would be able to speak like a native speaker. It makes sense, doesn’t it? Once you do your due diligence, you are then able to open your mouth and (without much effort) out flows beautiful Japanese. Ah, the thought of it!
While that may eventually be true for the cross-cultural worker who has spent most of their life in Japan, speaking realistically (which we have been learning to do in addition to speaking Japanese), there is a lot more to learning another language than you would think and it takes a lot longer than most people would anticipate. One reason I didn’t understand this was because (like most Americans), I had not done much foreign language learning. What little I did have was in a European language which (when compared to Japanese) are very similar to English. Because grammar structures are similar, it might be easy to switch the words in an English sentence with the French or Spanish words and have a similar meaning.
Not so with Japanese. Part of what makes it such a fascinating language is that the thought processes are so different from English. I have literally had times when the Japanese sentence I’m working on is opposite in structure to its English counterpart. For example, if I were to say, “The shirt I am wearing is from my friend”, I would say in Japanese, “Am wearing shirt, friend from received.” Interesting, huh?
Colby and I were remarking today that one reason why we have trouble incorporating some of the new grammar forms we’re learning into our everyday conversation is because they sometimes don’t have an equivalent in English. If they don’t have an exact equivalent in English, then our minds don’t naturally think in that particular form. For example, in Japanese, whenever you want to explain what someone has done for you or what you have done for them, you always use the main verb and then one of the ‘to give’ verbs. So, if you wanted to say, my friend washed my car, you would say “My friend my car washed gave”. It’s essentially saying, “My friend gave me the service of washing my car,” which is understandable, but never used in English.
Amidst these language difficulties, I have seen how God has blessed Colby and me. He has provided a wonderful Japanese tutor and helpers for us to study with. We have found some really great language learning resources that we use all the time. The Japanese people are very patient with us when we attempt to use new forms and words. Most of all though, Colby and I enjoy learning Japanese. Studying is usually interesting and encouraging, and we are able to look back and see how far we have come. I really don’t know how it would be if we didn’t enjoy it and we count this as a blessing from the Lord. Learning Japanese is a task that we will never be done with; we will never “arrive”. There will always be more to learn, even after years and years of being here.
Thank you for continuing to pray for us as we study. Pray that we would be able to understand Japanese thought patterns and ways of saying things even when they are very different from English so we can communicate as accurately as possible and be easily understood.