Horizons magazine is published by Presbyterian Women (PW) the national women’s organization of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).
Issue link: http://horizons.epubxp.com/i/521232
May/June 2015 23 I'd like to think that the memory of me struggling with their language s tayed with the children as they g rew up, and that it contributed in some small way to their under- standing of the value of their culture and of their place, exactly the same as mine, at God's table. B ruce Whearty is church support associate, midwest region, for the Presbyterian Mission Agency. Wan o Speak? is en! BY LUTA AND JEREMY GARBAT-WELCH At the Center for Intercultural Training (CIT) in North Carolina, we learned that the first rule of learning a new language is to listen. The second rule is to listen some more. If you start speaking before you have listened enough, you will repeat back the wrong thing and not even know it. We have found this to be very true as we learn Chichewa. Despite the assurances of everyone we meet that "Chichewa is easy to learn," we definitely have a lot more listening to do! It wasn't until a week after learning that the word "mtengo" means both "tree" and "price," that we learned they aren't actually said the same way, even though at first we were told they were the same word. Chichewa is a tonal language, so "mtengo" with a raised tone on the "e" means tree, and "mtengo" without the raised tone means "price." As we struggle to hear and copy a new sound, hopefully people will understand that when we ask about the mtengo of the lettuce in market, we mean price! We're also sorting out the nuances of multiple ways to say the same thing. We now know four ways to ask how much something costs. We've used one way only to be corrected to use another way. But when we ask people the difference, we're told "Chimodzimodzi" ("It's all one"). In reflecting on the frustration of words having multiple meanings and there being multiple ways to say the same thing, we realized that English is just the same. "Chimodzimodzi." To find out the price of an item we say, "What does this cost?" "What is the price?" "How much?" "What's the total?" Our study of Chichewa has gained momentum. Five days a week we meet with our "language helper" Amayi Nkangama in the morning for two hours. She teaches us new words and helps us with pronunciation. In the afternoon, we each meet with Amayi Kandulu for an hour of tutoring. Her lessons focus on grammar and different forms of dialogue. Then we take deliberate trips "out of the nest" to practice Chichewa. Sometimes that means walking to the local shops, introducing ourselves as people who want to learn Chichewa, and seeing what we can practice and learn. Other times that means a trip to practice a cultural situation, like shopping in the market. We hope to continue recruiting more language helpers so we can be exposed to other accents, vocabulary preference and speaking styles. Plus, it is a great way to develop relationships! Luta (pictured on the right) and Jeremy Garbat-Welch are serving in Malawi where Luta serves as Africa community health facilitator. Read more reflections and letters from PC(USA) mission co-workers at www.presbyterianmission.org /ministries/missionconnections /find-mission-worker.