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“And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with different tongues, as the Spirit was giving them the ability to speak out.” Acts 2:4 (New American Standard Bible)

If you had any chance to interact with our recent Czech visitors, you might be surprised that Czech is a completely different, and difficult language to learn.  The visitors that we have welcomed from the Czech Republic are among the best English speakers that we know here.  Communication outside of the English Camp context or major cities (such as Prague) is much more challenging.

I have prepared a recording so that you can hear a sample of the Czech language.  Play the audio and see if you can decipher what is being said.

Was I asking for a sandwich?  Was I telling you that your car is being towed?  Chances are you couldn’t tell, and no amount of re-listening will help.  (If you want to find out what I said, scroll to the bottom of this post.)

So how do we get by here?

The first thing to note is that small talk is not a part of Czech culture.  It is unthinkable that we might meet a stranger at a park, bus stop or on the street and just strike up a conversation about the weather.  It just isn’t part of the culture.  This eliminates a lot of the casual conversation that we might otherwise need to engage in.

Second, about 80% of conversation is non-verbal – tone of voice, facial expression, hand gestures, and of course, context.  Context is probably the biggest help for Chris, who has learned the routine of paying for goods at a shop quite well.  She knows that at a certain point, she will be asked if she will be paying with a credit card (she shows her card and says “karta”), later she knows she may be asked for a signature, so she has a pen in hand and is ready.  When the transaction is over, she listens for the “děkujeme“ (we thank you).  Though she cannot speak the language, context provides a safe framework.

In a similar way, I use context to help with my understanding of what is being said.  Even if I don’t know every word, about 50% of the time I can make a reasonable guess.  This has, however, led to some interesting misunderstandings.  With practice, I hope to get better over time.

Outside of context, communication gets more difficult.  We are forced to use the Google translate application, draw pictures, make gestures, and use whatever language we have.  Unlike the day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit miraculously gave the disciples the gift of speaking languages, we rely on God’s Spirit for peace, patience and wisdom to make these conversations work.  And that leads me to the final point.

At English Camp, where more people speak at least a little bit of English, we still find ourselves speaking with students where English is difficult.  We have translators for the gospel presentations, but one-on-one, we do not.  I get encouragement from the words of the Apostle Paul to the Corinthian church who said “and my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, “ (1 Corinthians 2:4, NASB).  Our job here is not to convince people with our eloquent Czech speech. Instead, by faith, we rely on the power of the Spirit of God to make the love of Christ known. Come to think of it, this reliance really isn’t much different at home.

Prayer Requests:

 

What did I Say?

That was John 1:1-4.  I was reading the text and have practiced many times.  My actual Czech is not that fluent-sounding.  (For any of our Czech friends who might be reading, I pray that my pronunciation did not hurt your ears too much 😉)