More on language

Bait-and-switch! this is an entirely different post than the previous…

Everything here is in English and Portuguese. The translators are amazing - they do more speaking than anyone - all the prayer, all the scripture reading, instructions, confessions, questions, answers… I never expected to learn Portuguese by coming to Germany, but I’m learning just by semi-immersion: - in the prayer before lunch I understood almost half of it - mostly because of the nature of the words I’ve learnt: “God”, “Lord”, “thanks”, “name of Jesus”, “extreme beauty”…

The Brazilians are impressive - many of them had pretty limited English when they first arrived - and in the first week they’ve improved so much. A group of us pray over the school each night, and the Brazilians committed to praying in English, occasionally asking for a word.

I’m challenged in language learning - One of the Australians here has made an effort at learning Portuguese - taking advantage of the environment: writing things down and asking questions and practising sentences. I intend on learning languages when I get back - probably Arabic and/or Turkish - it depends where I go next. But for now I’m learning the learning of languages.

Bom Dia