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| Pictures from an English club (not this past week) |
With the school year starting, we decided to have a debate about what subjects should be taught in island schools. The discussion could have gone in any number of ways, but it seemed to be turning into a “butter-up-the-English-teacher hour.” As each club member made his speech about the importance of teaching and promoting English in the local schools, it was getting pretty boring. So to spice things up, I told them they were all wrong and that the subject they should be teaching in the schools is the local island language. Due to a heritage of French colonization the language of education on the islands is French. Students are never taught their own language. In fact the island language is not a written language.
Well this spiced things up. Most of the club members thought this was a crazy idea:
“What’s the point? No one speaks it but us.”
“Our language is such a mixture of other languages, it’s not worth it.”
“The way they say things here is different than the way they say things in the next town over.”
“How would you ever figure out a way to standardize it...
It’s not even the same on the three islands.”
“English and French are important languages...
Learning our language would be a waste of time.”
“It's a waste of time.”
Well this made for good discussion. We argued each point trying to show the value of learning the island language. “Scientific studies show…” but we hadn’t really convinced anyone.
As time was winding down, we asked our friend (who had been listening quietly the whole evening) if she had anything to say. This was her response (as best as I can remember it):
I am from Korea. We are not a very big country but we are proud of our language. We too were a former colony like you. A long time ago we were colonized by the Japanese, and they tried to destroy our language. But the Korean people would not let them. Some people even died to protect the Korean language. I think language is not just words, but it is the heart and spirit of a people. French and English are good languages, but as long as you depend on these other languages you will not be free. Your people will not be free, because your language is not free.
The room fell silent and everyone seemed to hear the profundity of these words. Many of the students said her comments were well said. One student ended the time by saying, “In my family, we never respect the island language. Even in my home we speak French. But now, I think, I have changed my mind. Our language is important.”PRAYERS ANSWERED
Our team family made it safely back to their home country. We had a good visit with our colleague. We had some stressful plumbing problems (made more stressful by a conflict with our landlady), but thankfully the plumber worked into the night today and it is all fixed!
PRAYERS REQUESTED
We’ve been feeling a little worn down lately. Pray for some rest and encouragement. This coming week is a holiday. Pray we’d get opportunities to connect and share with island neighbors and friends over the holiday. One of our teammates is having a birthday gathering where she hopes to sing songs, pray and share about her life with her island friends— pray that it goes well and ends up being a powerful time for all involved. We are trying to finish a grammar book for learning the local language- pray that the final editing process would go well. Pray for an island friend who is pregnant and worried about having a miscarriage— pray that she could carry the baby to term without complications.
