Lost in Translation

Language is an important element of culture.

Language affects the way we think and express ourselves on the deepest level.

Language is part of our core identity.

Language can help us cross borders and connect with others but can also be a barrier in relationships.

Twenty-five years ago the United Nations named February 21 the International Mother Language Day, a day to consider, celebrate, and promote cultural and linguistic diversity awareness. It’s the day we can think about our own languages and roots and the importance of real communication.

During the past 35 years we have lived on different continents and had to learn new languages. When we arrived in South America in 1995, we didn’t speak a word of Spanish—yet knew that ministering in that context as university professors would mean we would have to become fluent in Spanish. Learning the language under time pressure was tough, and we soon realized that our understanding of the language involved more than grammar, syntax, and semantics. We needed to be able to hear—what some have called—the “language of the heart.” Heart language goes deeper than the correct vocabulary, tenses, and syntax. Heart language requires us to listen empathetically and listen to the nuances between the words and lines. Heart language challenges us to open our hearts (and minds) to others who may not think as we do or share our ideals, convictions, or foundational principles.

Language Connects

We finally learned Spanish, which helped us in the new culture that became our home for 11 years. It took some years and some shared pain, but we managed to “understand” beyond grammar, semantics, and syntax. You could tell we were not native, but we were able to get closer to the people surrounding us in Peru and later Argentina by speaking and understanding their language—including the “language of the heart.”

It’s just the result of thinking less and less about those around us who do not belong.

Our marriage is a cross-cultural marriage. We don’t share the same first language, and neither do our children. English has become the language of our marriage since we met and married in an English-speaking environment, even though we now live in a German-speaking country. Our children have a mother tongue (English) as well as a father tongue (German). We preach in German, relate to people around us in German, write in German (that’s not always easy for Chantal), and realize that our ability to manage three different languages is both an asset and a liability. It’s an asset because we can easily connect to people whose mother tongue is Spanish or English and make them feel at home. It’s a liability because we cannot become completely proficient in all three languages.

Not “Churchese”

Why would you spend time reading (in English) our musings about Mother Language Day or the journey we took to learn new languages? Language is crucial to church relations and church growth. Language is a key medium to communicate with one another. Our joys, our frustrations, our anger, our convictions—they all get shared, with language being an important part of the communication process. Adventist congregations (including pastors) have often been very adept at speaking a language called “churchese.”

It’s the language of the initiated, full of terminology and concepts that few people living in an increasingly secular world can understand or even relate to. In English this language often echoes the KJV or the writings of Ellen White. The uninitiated often find it unintelligible and hard to understand. Yet for those inside the church, it offers a convenient way to determine who belongs and who does not belong. Most of the time this is not a conscious effort or the result of exclusivist musings or ideology. It’s just the result of thinking less and less about those around us who do not belong.

Congregations who have committed to engage consciously the world they are part of have to work hard to avoid “churchese.” They need to find ways of relating eternal principles and divine truths in a language that their neighbors across the road who have never set foot in a church will be able to relate to—intellectually and emotionally. Those who commit to stop speaking “churchese” will find unexpected blessings as they begin to relearn the language of biblical narratives and eternal truths as they relate to a twenty-first century world.

Similar to what we experienced when we sweated and struggled to learn Spanish, they will discover new depths and unexpected vistas of grace-filled concepts and principles. These ideas invite those listening to them, as well as those uttering them for the first time, to enter into a place of belonging and wholesome community where all of us are invited to join the fellowship of God’s family on earth that will continue right into eternity. Giving up “churchese” may not feel comfortable or be easy, but learning to reflect God’s “heart talk” will be well worth the effort.