John Simons

The language issue

One of the concerns that Josh and I spoke about at length before coming on this trip was the language barrier.  In Paraguay, they have two official languages: Spanish and Guaraní.  Josh was concerned because he doesn´t speak either.  I had some concern because, while I once was fairly good at Spanish, I had not used the language much in a long time.

Happily, both Josh and I have been able to communicate.  On our first morning here, Josh learned that sports is a great language to communicate.  Marcelo, who has become Josh´s friend and personal translator, got Josh playing soccer with some of the boys.  Since then, he has had friends with him regularly.  He is frequently seen laughing and playing with other boys, some his age, some younger and some older.  He has done incredibly well at learning some basic phrases to communicate, and at using Marcelo to help him speak to others.  He has also been great at blending into the group dynamics of our team.

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Tags: Guarani, Missions, Paraguay, Spanish

Mission Trip - Language Barrier

Josh has begun compiling information about the Guaraní language. According to Wikipedia, Guaraní is an exception in that it is a native language that has not succumbed to a European colonial language in prestige. In fact most Guaraní-speakers are not of indigenous ethnicity. You can even browse the Guaraní language Wikipedia, if you are so inclined.

Josh is going to compile a list of phrases in Spanish and Guaraní to help us communicate with our hosts. However, I plan to rely on the translator for most of my communication. Beyond that, I will have to hope that my rusty Spanish will be enough to communicate the basics. I have a long, and not always pleasant history with the Spanish language. But that is a story for another time. . . .

Tags: Guarani, Language, Missions, Paraguay