Ek is Vrydag!!

In case you were wondering, the quickest way to make yourself feel stupid and out of touch with reality is learning a new language. And that’s not just opinion…it’s FACT. I’m serious!! Learning new sounds that are not in your own language, staring intently at people’s mouths as they talk to you, and repeating the same random word over and over and over again does NOT equal coolness. It is a recipe for disaster, foolishness, and at some points a really low self-esteem. Often, that self-esteem bit comes in when you are sitting at a table and trying intently to listen in on what seems like other-worldly words, and stupidly think you can be a meaningful contributor to the conversation. So instead of keeping your foreign mouth shut, as you should, you boldly shout “Ek is Vrydag!!!”. The crushing blow is delivered when instead of a chorus of “oohs” and “aahs” that you were hoping to receive, you instead have the honor of giving everyone at the table a chuckle that is so hearty, they loose their breath and turn red. Yes my friends, this is a tale of language learning at its best.

Since I’ve been here, I’ve been studying Afrikaans with a good friend of mine. We have daily lessons together over a cup of coffee at various places around the city (a personal favorite as of yesterday is the Maple Cinnamon Latte at Mugg & Bean. It’s like Christmas in a Cup, I tell you! And when it’s wintery here, Christmas in a Cup is just what the linguist ordered!). Often these lessons consist of her patiently going through random vocab with me and correcting my horrible mispronunciations. Today, we moved onto words and phrases. Let me tell you – Merry Christmas is a friggin’ hard thing to say here! It’s a wonder people bother wishing one another well at all! And Happy New Year?! Don’t even get me started. Let’s just say we don’t have a sound in English that equates to “New” in Afrikaans.

Before this, I really thought I had a knack for languages. I’ve got a good memory, and I am eager to learn. But Afrikaans is HARD! And my wonderful teacher Desire isn’t even bothering to teach me sentence structure and everything because it’s too hard to learn in three weeks. So I am busying myself with learning vocab and small sentences. I am hoping to know all the Afrikaans words for the things I want to grow in my garden at least! I know the things I eat, and I know the clothes I wear, but I just can’t help like feeling that something is missing. See – language is the ESSENCE of a culture. It’s what they use to communicate. It’s how people express sorrow and joy and love and frustration. It’s what people use to tell jokes and how people say “I love you”. Not many people walk around saying “Green Beans!!” repeatedly (which is “groen boonjies”, by the way). But that’s what I am doing.

In 1 Corinthians 13, Paul tells us, “When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me.” The language lessons have me feeling like a child again. I am ready to communicate as an adult does. But then I remind myself of what Jesus says in Luke 18, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it”.

So if being like a child and feeling like a child, but doing it in faith because I know it’s where God has me right now, means that I shout a million times over “I AM FRIDAY, I AM FRIDAY!!” then I will happily do it! My Afrikaans lessons have become my time to be humbled and my time to become child-like, and I just need to learn to be okay with that. The communication of the deep things will come. And it’s not going to happen overnight…or before I leave next week. But as Christ grows us into maturity, so we learn to communicate with maturity. However, in closing, I want to wish you all a very early Geseeende Kersfees and a Gelukkiege Nuwe Jaar, because by the time they roll around, I might be able to pronounce them for you.