'How do we get the meaning across?'
Elijah Hall says that it’s all about being certain that the meaning is right.
“The goal is to make sure that the meaning of God’s communication with man stays the same, despite the fact that each missionary will be working in a language that is not their own, possibly an unwritten one. Every language has a way to communicate meaning, but the forms are so very different.”
He gives an example. “In English, if we begin a story with a character named Joseph, then the hearer knows that unless otherwise specified, every time Joseph is mentioned, it is the same person.” But Elijah explains that in some languages, every time a proper name is mentioned, it means that there is a new character being introduced.
If you didn’t understand this, Elijah says, you could tell your audience the story of Joseph and find out when you were finished, that they understood very little of what you had told them, simply because they were unable to keep track of how many Josephs there were in the story.
Elijah says, “This is part of a language feature called ‘participant tracking,’ which is just one of the ten features we learned about in Advanced Language Workshop … The details seemed a little overwhelming and we spent quite a few late nights staying up with our homework just to be sure we were catching on while we had the opportunity.”
A team from NTM USA traveled to Paraguay for two weeks in May to conduct this workshop that encouraged 44 missionaries from all over Latin America by providing 77 hours of class and help time. Elijah notes, “We were very grateful to be invited and to learn things that will greatly help us, both in our Spanish study and in our future work among tribes.”
Elijah is grateful for the input and encouragement of this NTM Advanced Language Workshop. He writes, “We are so thankful to be working with other believers toward the common goal of spreading the Truth to all the world.”
Pray that God will bless the participants in this recent workshop as they move on in their studies, translation work and Bible teaching. Thank God for His faithful work in preserving the integrity of His Word as it spreads throughout the world.