This comes from Judy Russell. She asks if we feel secluded due to our language differences.
This is a fantastic question, and the answer will take us about eight months back, all the way to February...
When we started taking language classes way back then we knew very little Cebuano, and I mean basically one or two phrases. And we later found out that we were using them horribly incorrect. We went through the course of material that our awesome teacher patiently guided us through in about 7 months, while the course is intended to take closer to a year or year and a half, if you really pace yourself (imagine a fire-hose attached to a hydrant, now rip the hose off and drink straight from the hydrant). We did learn quite a bit and are now going through the process of relearning more of the fine points that we may have missed in those whirlwind months of study.
I would say that with the level of language that we now have we can communicate fairly okay with people here. We're not as good as we need to be, no way near, but we have had times where we have been able to lead Bible Studies and share the Gospel in full-blown Cebuano, or have normal-ish conversations. Sometimes it feels like we are clicking and everything is firing on all cylinders and other times we have to sit and think and write out what we are going to say before we say it. It's really like when you are in line to order some food and you know what you want and you rehearse it five times in your head before you get up to the counter to actually order.
Yeah...it's like that.
But now, after all of the language classes that we have had, would I say that we feel secluded because of our language differences? In a way, of course! No matter how long we live here and get more and more proficient in speaking the language, we will always be missing out on idioms or figures of speech that native Filipinos will use. Or the speed in which some people speak will just be too quick for us.A tip when speaking with someone who is learning English: Slow down, don't get loud! They aren't deaf, they just can't catch all you are saying because you are talking so fast.
I would also say that, in another way, we don't feel as isolated as we maybe once did. We are able to communicate on days when we have our thinking caps on. When we don't have a rough switch from thinking in English to thinking in Cebuano then it's usually (sometimes) fairly straightforward to communicate with everyday folk we run into. Even if we have to ask them to slow down and repeat themselves we have had a few decent conversations with some locals who barely speak any English.
But there is actually so much more complexity to this situation than I am able to write here. The type of linguistic knowledge we are going after goes farther than scraping by through high school Spanish classes. It also goes farther than just survival-level language (you know, like being able to ask where the bathroom is and things like that). We are trying to be conversant enough that when we are able to pick up on social cues we can share the Gospel with our tricycle driver over the roar of his motorbike engine. It's being able to preach basically on demand whenever we visit a church for the first time. It's being able to prepare a Bible Study not using Google translate because we need more nuance and less literal, rigid translation. It's then being able to answer random questions that we haven't had time to sit and think through in Cebuano because someone is spouting off something crazy or has a real difficult question or they are in a spiritual crisis. These situations require much more than simply survival Cebuano.
But why not use a translator? We do have one, our parter Rudy (why not go ahead and befriend him on facebook and tell him you're praying for him!) is awesome and really helpful, but he can't be expected to literally be with us 24/7/365, he has a family and ministry responsibilities of his own. So if we really want to be efficient and helpful and if we really want to try to make any sort of impact while we live and work here, then we need to continue to study and practice and push ourselves to be better Cebuano speakers.
If you are interested in learning a little more about what we are planning to do with our vast mental stores of Cebuano language learning, check out this post.
On a related note: Most of you guys know that we have some new missionary friends that have recently arrived here in Butuan. They are here doing medical mission work and have recently began language study with Ate Mimi, our teacher. Pray for them that they have understanding and patience with themselves as they will be taking classes for the next year.