Sad But True

A few months back, I spent some time in Namibia, a country where Afrikaans is the predominant language (Afrikaans is an Indo-European language derived from Dutch. It came to Southern Africa when the Dutch settled there in the 17th century). Now, I've been picking up some Afrikaans here and there, but I'm not a very proficient speaker yet. Still, everywhere I go people assume that I can speak Afrikaans because I'm white. One man, after realizing that I was from America and couldn't really speak the language, told the following joke:

What do you call someone who speaks three languages?

Trilingual.

What do you call someone who speaks two languages?

Bilingual.

What do you call someone who speaks only one language?

American.

I had to laugh at the joke, but I found it sad and, generally speaking, quite true. As I've traveled the world, I've found that in most countries people grow up learning multiple languages. Take South Africa, for example. In primary school, most kids are already studying English and Afrikaans. And for most black South Africans, these languages are in addition to their mother tongues spoken in the home. In my experience here, it has been very common to find a young kid that is fluent in four, five, or even six languages. It's insane.

This emphasis on multiple languages is not contained just to Africa either. Even in China, I found that children now grow up studying Mandarin and English from a very young age. The Chinese see great value in their next generation's ability to speak English, the dominant language in the world right now.

And then there's America. In America, kids grow up learning one language. On the one hand, it makes sense. I mean, in today's shrinking world, you can go almost anywhere and get by speaking just English. So why force kids to learn a second language, right? On the other hand, I think we are missing out on something huge here. For one thing, children have an incredible capacity for linguistics. So the question that should really be asked is: why not teach our children a second language? With the growing influence of Latino culture in the States, why not teach Spanish as a second language in our elementary schools? Or what about the rapid growth of China and Japan in the global economy--why not teach Chinese or Japanese as second languages? Seriously, we should just pick one and give our children the gift of a second language.

Sure, we can keep raising up children who will one day grow up, travel the world, and expect everyone to conform to American standards, or we can raise up children who learn to embrace other cultures and connect on a deeper level with different kinds of people through the languages. I think we are really missing an opportunity here...

Thoughts...???

Sports: A Universal Language

I've been pleasantly surprised to find that in many African countries English is widely spoken, especially by the youth. Tanzania, however, was an exception to this rule. Swahili is their official language, and while English is now being introduced in many schools, it has still not taken root as much as in other parts of Africa. So, I was forced to quickly pick up some Swahili if I wanted to communicate with a lot of the youth I spent time with. In their broken English and my broken Swahili, we were able to communicate...sort of. Here's an example of a short conversation I had with one teenage boy:

Me: Who's your favorite basketball player?

Boy: I 14 years old.

Okay, so it didn't take too long to realize that we really weren't communicating. So, we scrapped that conversation and decided to try a more universal language: sports.

I don't care what you say, foosball is a sport...and it's awesome!

Basketball was also a big hit!

Barefoot basketball on an eight-foot hoop. Good times.

That's the thing I love about sports--they are the universal language. I was able to connect with these youth so much more through sports than I would have been able to through broken conversation (see conversation above). Through sports, I believe God has given us an incredible opportunity to connect different cultures around the world and to reach young people for Christ. For you sports lovers out there, ask yourself this question:

How can I use my love for sports to expand God's kingdom and impact lives for Christ?

The Many Languages of South Africa

One of the most intriguing things about South Africa, in my opinion, is the incredible ethnic, cultural, and especially linguistic diversity of this country. I don't know why, but ever since I was young I have been fascinated by different languages. South Africa has ELEVEN officially recognized national languages, including English, Afrikaans (an Indo-European language, derived from Dutch), and nine other African dialects. As you'll notice in the table below, Zulu is spoken in more homes than any other language.

The 2001 census recorded the following home language speakers:

Language	Speakers	%
Zulu	10 677 000	23.8%
Xhosa	7 907 000	17.6%
Afrikaans	5 983 000	13.3%
Northern Sotho	4 209 000	9.4%
Tswana	3 677 000	8.2%
English	3 673 000	8.2%
Sotho	3 555 000	7.9%
Tsonga	1 992 000	4.4%
Swati	1 194 000	2.7%
Venda	1 022 000	2.3%
Ndebele	712 000	1.6%
Other languages	217 000	0.5%
Total	44 820 000	100.0%

Two years ago, I set some goals for my life, and at the time one of my five-year goals was to become fluent in another language. I've decided to give Zulu a shot, which means that I have only three years to meet my goal (that might be a little unrealistic, but I'll try my best!). My language studies to this point in my life have included Spanish, Mandarin, Koine Greek, short stints of German and French in middle school, and bits and pieces of Hindi, Bengali, and more recently, Afrikaans. Zulu is significantly different from all of these other languages. In fact, I have found all African dialects to be unique from any other language that I have studied before. Until now, I've mostly been picking up words and phrases here and there from my interaction with Zulus, but I recently purchased a beginner's level Zulu book which I plan to study for an hour or so each day. The Zulu language contains "click" sounds (a la the bushmen from The Gods Must Be Crazy) which add to the difficulty of learning the language for a white boy like me. Still, I'm always up for a challenge!