Language Training

We are now in our second week of language training here in Colorado!! It has been such a blast meeting other cross-cultural workers who are going all around the world to share the love of Jesus.  It has also been encouraging to be around people who are in the same phase of life as us.  That in part being, selling everything and moving to another country.

Our days have been spent learning so many new things including phonetics, where we sit in a group and practice saying "aka, aka, apa, apa, obo obo, nga nga." It's real fun.  We have made our mouths become slaves to us and have forced them to make sounds and do things they are not use to.  By the end of the day our jaw, mouth, throat, and tongue are at times exhausted and a little sore.  I (Kenzi) tried to talk Mark into making a video of us practicing all the sounds so you all can see how cool we look, but he didn't jump on board with that one :)

We will be learning Swahili once we get to Kenya.  Before coming to this training I will be honest and say that I was nervous about learning Swahili.  It intimidated me and since Mark already knows a little, I felt like he would always correct me which would make me not want to speak it.  But through this training I have learned that I can learn the language and I will.  God has given me the ability to learn it, I just have to retrain my brain and force my mouth and tongue to do sounds they are not used to....yet.

We have learned that we are the owners of our language learning 'business' and if we are going to learn it, we will have to make the plans, implement them, then do them.  We have been encouraged to come into language learning as a child and to spend more time listening at first, then speaking and learning grammar. If you think about it, children spend the first six or so months of their life just listening to their parents.  The language is being input into their brain and they are trying to figure it out.  After a while they begin to comprehend and then babble.  This is my favorite stage as it comes with much grace from your language helper, spouse, and local friends.  The biggest thing after the babble stage is to learn proper pronunciation.  Grammar follows towards the end when enough information has been inputted into your brain.

 My mind is just blown away by the way God made us and our brains to be able to learn a language and our mouths be able to make these sounds. It's just incredible! God is so creative! I mean, WOW GOD! I could go on and on about all the tools we have acquired to help us learn Swahili. This training has been a HUGE blessing to us and I know it will help us especially when we are on the field learning the language and building relationships. We are so thankful to all of our supporters for helping us get here and for being apart of the journey with us.  The Family of God is at work all over the world.  It is incredibly beautiful when you really think about it. God is so cool!