Missionaries in Our Own Culture
It doesn't take a genius to realize that the world around us is changing. Some people have lived in a way, however, that isolates them from these changes. Others of us live in enclaves of homogeneity and monoethnicity. But if I pay attention, it's not too hard to see that I live around people who are very different from me.
Here's a key example of how we can start to become missionaries in our own culture:
LANGUAGE AWARENESS
I just went to the bank to deposit a check. It's the branch near the church office, not the one closest to my house. I had to wait a few minutes. The clerks were busy helping other customers. At first I realized that one teller was talking to a customer in Spanish. Then I heard another teller speaking Spanish to his client. All of these tellers are also very capable English speakers. But did I know that so many Hispanic clients do business at my bank? No, I hadn't noticed.
This should not surprise me. The Census Bureau says that nearly 40% of Fresnans speak a language other than English at home. Most of those folks probably also speak English quite well. And another good number of people who speak English at home probably also know a second language. I would guess, therefore, that close to 40% of our population is bilingual (or even multi-lingual).
I too am bilingual, but in a language that few people speak (Czech). I wonder, though, how many people in the College Church speak more than one language. How well do we reflect the culture around us? And how can we relate to our changing culture without becoming multilingual ourselves?
Our church janitor, Bee, is Hmong. His English is pretty good, considering that Hmong is his native tongue. Perhaps he speaks part of another language as well. But I would guess that some people judge him based on his imperfect English.
One of the missionary traits we have to adapt is cultural sensitivity -- even here in our home culture. It was hard for me to finally understand that fluency in English does not equal intelligence. Growing up in the South, protected from diversity, I though that "foreigners" were not smart if they didn't speak our language well. The more I travelled, however, the more I realized how ignorant this view is.
AN EXPERIMENT
Try becoming a linguist this week. See how many different languages you hear in a 7-day period. If you don't know the language, ask the folks, "Sorry to bother you, would you mind telling me what language you're speaking." Then say your thanks and move on. Or if you hear someone with an unusual accent, ask them if they mind telling you where they're from & what language is their mother tongue. Just try this experiment for a week. I'm curious what you might discover.
Here's a key example of how we can start to become missionaries in our own culture:
LANGUAGE AWARENESS
I just went to the bank to deposit a check. It's the branch near the church office, not the one closest to my house. I had to wait a few minutes. The clerks were busy helping other customers. At first I realized that one teller was talking to a customer in Spanish. Then I heard another teller speaking Spanish to his client. All of these tellers are also very capable English speakers. But did I know that so many Hispanic clients do business at my bank? No, I hadn't noticed.
This should not surprise me. The Census Bureau says that nearly 40% of Fresnans speak a language other than English at home. Most of those folks probably also speak English quite well. And another good number of people who speak English at home probably also know a second language. I would guess, therefore, that close to 40% of our population is bilingual (or even multi-lingual).
I too am bilingual, but in a language that few people speak (Czech). I wonder, though, how many people in the College Church speak more than one language. How well do we reflect the culture around us? And how can we relate to our changing culture without becoming multilingual ourselves?
Our church janitor, Bee, is Hmong. His English is pretty good, considering that Hmong is his native tongue. Perhaps he speaks part of another language as well. But I would guess that some people judge him based on his imperfect English.
One of the missionary traits we have to adapt is cultural sensitivity -- even here in our home culture. It was hard for me to finally understand that fluency in English does not equal intelligence. Growing up in the South, protected from diversity, I though that "foreigners" were not smart if they didn't speak our language well. The more I travelled, however, the more I realized how ignorant this view is.
AN EXPERIMENT
Try becoming a linguist this week. See how many different languages you hear in a 7-day period. If you don't know the language, ask the folks, "Sorry to bother you, would you mind telling me what language you're speaking." Then say your thanks and move on. Or if you hear someone with an unusual accent, ask them if they mind telling you where they're from & what language is their mother tongue. Just try this experiment for a week. I'm curious what you might discover.
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