A Bit of a Detour

from Elliott
Going through China is a strange way to get to South Africa! Let me explain....

We are at language school now and while we are not learning the Xhosa language that we will use in South Africa, we are learning basics of language as well as techniques to learn any language with the use of a local coach.

We have spent days learning phonetics and the many sounds that we are not familiar with because they are not used in English. To teach us acquisition techniques we have been divided into small groups and assigned a native speaker representing many different countries. Mine is Mandarin Chinese and Katherine's is German.

The coaches guide us through a variety of drills, projects and role playing. Today, I learned hospitality conversation as if visiting a friend in China. We have also played games using drawings of places, forms of transportation and various pronouns and adjectives.

Seems strange to be learning Chinese but because I will never use it again, it allows me to focus on the methods that I will replicate once in South Africa. I think if my coach spoke Xhosa I would end up focusing on the language and not the methods.

I am fascinated to see how God will use what we have learned during this time once we get to South Africa!