Ups and Downs of Language Learning

 Learning the local language is one of the most essential components of living cross-culturally. There are many ways to go about learning the language. Communicating is almost as necessary as figuring out how to get food and water. Sometimes, a translator is the best and fastest way to settle in. Thankfully, English is becoming more and more common in Africa, especially in bigger cities! Basic English is often taught in schools, and when asked, most English-speaking locals say they learned from watching movies.

One of our goals while living in the “Horn of Africa” is to learn the language well! When we first arrived in the Horn in 2020, we had been invited by an underground Somali pastor to live in his city. We prayed about this opportunity and felt that living there for one year, focusing primarily on language, would be a good jumping-off point for us to move further east, deeper into the Somali region. When we moved, there was some tribal unrest in the town, especially in the Somali neighborhoods, so our house broker could not show us any houses there, but he could find us a place near the Somali community. We quickly realized that this town was not primarily a Somali town, as we had thought, but rather a good mix of many tribes. We needed to learn the local dialect to get around town, buy things at the market and shops, and pay our bills. We decided to spend a few months learning the local dialect, just enough to get the basics down before jumping into learning Somali.

At the time, devoting the first few months to a language, we did not plan on using long-term felt like such a setback! Having lived in North Africa for four years and learned Arabic there, I wasn’t sure I had the mental capacity to learn TWO more languages! This was not the language of the people the Father put on our hearts! This language will not be helpful once we cross the border! But! It really was necessary for us to get by where we were living, so we dug in! We learned enough to get by, and I was even able to make a few friends at a small market close to our house.

Like the rest of the world, we had a lot of ups and down in the summer of 2020! We both were down for the count for at least 2 weeks each with COVID. Our language helper was hospitalized with pregnancy complications. We traveled to the capital, all of which meant we spent a few months not doing any language learning. Thankfully, we ended the year with a few good months of Somali language lessons under our belts!

….And then we spent a Y E A R in the states!

Obviously, I have forgotten pretty much everything I learned in either language! It feels like we are starting over at square one, but that’s not entirely true! We now have a lot of experience learning language, we know our learning styles, what works and what doesn’t work for each of us, and we also learned that we differ in most of these areas, so having language lessons together is not the best option for each of us to thrive!

For me personally, I have (attempted to ) learn a language using what is called the “Growing Participatory Approach,” or “GPA” for short. This method thrives on immersion in the language and culture, using a local language helper versus sitting in a classroom and learning from a textbook. This is a structured approach to learning language in 6 Phases. Each phase eases you into the culture more and more as you go. In the first phase, you learn a lot of vocabulary and can say simple phrases. The second phase urges the learner to speak a little more and carry on simple conversations. Phase 3 focuses on the learner participating in cultural activities with the language helper, like going to the market together or making a local dish together, then spending the lesson time explaining in detail the steps of the activity. Often shared stories are implemented in this phase, stories that I am familiar with, and my language helper can read and then retell them to me so I can pick up on words I don’t know. I have even used some Bible stories during this phase in the past. Phase 4 is where the relationship with my language helper takes a deep dive, and she shares her personal life story with me. Phase 5 is when the learner attempts to keep up with local to local conversations and listens to and understands local radio or news programs. Finally, Phase 6 are steps to take to continuously learn the language and culture.

Once again, I find myself in Phase 1 and have been doing a lot of listening! Actually, for the 100 hours of lessons, it is advised that the learner not speak much! This is modeled after how we learn naturally; a baby listens to others speaking for a long time before ever uttering a word! During the first phase, we use small flashcards, and the language helper points to one picture and says the word repeatedly. We add a few more pictures at a time, and then the helper asks where is ___, and I point to whichever word she says. This is how we gain a lot of vocabulary very fast! I record every lesson to relisten to them later when I study.

Since arriving in February, I have spent a few hours a week listening to my old language lesson recordings and practicing the words with the locals we live with and when I am out and about in the city.

Fuzzy and I have been pretty busy leading training and focusing more on the ministry side of our work in this season and not focusing as much on language learning. We again have found ourselves in a place that requires us to use the local language, and are not able to focus on Somali just yet. I have been feeling a little stressed about being here for 3+ months, and I’m still stringing short phrases together or using one or two words that I know and a lot of pointing! Last week I decided to crack down on and spend a significant amount of time listening to my language recordings. After a few days of this, I felt like I was finally making teeny tiny baby steps of progress, and then all night, I dreamed in Arabic, a language I haven’t used in my daily life for 3 years! 😏 

Ahhh.. the life of a cross-cultural worker!