discovering missions - Southern Nazarene University

245187 Disc Missions ins 9/6/07 1:04 PM Page 110
110 Intercultural Communication
complex along a single continuum with all other elements of civilization.
According to the cultural evolution paradigm, the most civilized
peoples would also be those speaking the most complex languages.
Notwithstanding stereotypes nourished by movies such as Tarzan, those
working in Bible translation have discovered that some so-called primitive
peoples have extremely complex languages. Apart from an occasional
trade language that no one speaks as a native tongue, there is no
such thing as a simple language with a limited vocabulary and rudimentary
grammar. Adding to the linguistic complexity are the separate registers
or language variations used in differing contexts and social settings.
For instance, a mother will use one way of speaking to her young
child, while her vocabulary and grammar will be different when she
speaks to her employer. When that mother switches her way of speaking,
she is not changing languages or even dialects. She is code-switching
within the same language.
4. Natural languages are tied to cultures. No natural language exists apart
from a culture, except Esperanto, which originated in the 1880s with
L. L. Zamenhof who hoped it would become an international language.
The intertwining of language and culture caused linguists Edward
Sapir and Benjamin Whorf to raise the question as to whether it is language
that shapes culture or culture that shapes language. This discussion
can be illustrated by the different points of view that cultures have
on the past and the future. In many cultures people talk about the past
as being behind them while the future lies in front of them. The Aymara
culture of Peru sees the past and the future differently. Because the
past can be seen, the Aymaras visualize the past as being in front of
them. Since the future is unknown and therefore cannot be seen, they
say the future lies behind them.
Because languages are tied to culture, language learning and cultural
acquisition can be thought of as two sides of the same coin. One cannot
be done well without doing the other. With language being such an
integral part of culture, various communication challenges must be
overcome when the gospel is taken into cultures where it has not yet
been preached. Discipling and leadership training are also challenging
when scriptural and theological concepts have yet to be contextualized
in a given language and cultural context.
5. Every language is sufficient for the use of the culture to which it belongs.
Nomadic cowherds such as the Nuer in Africa may not have a lot
of technical words and phrases about computers in their vocabulary,
but in terms of talking about cows, the Nuer language is richer than