{"id":482,"date":"2016-05-17T12:06:10","date_gmt":"2016-05-17T22:06:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/paul-swenson\/?p=482"},"modified":"2016-05-17T12:09:54","modified_gmt":"2016-05-17T17:09:54","slug":"adventures-in-culture-and-language","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/paul-swenson\/2016\/05\/17\/adventures-in-culture-and-language\/","title":{"rendered":"Adventures in Culture and Language"},"content":{"rendered":"

As we prepare for Papua New Guinea this year, we would like to introduce you to some of the work we will be doing in the future. \u00a0In less than a year we will find ourselves learning a new culture and language. \u00a0Have you ever thought of how much our language is influenced by our culture? \u00a0Even in North America, the region we live in determines the meaning of words. \u00a0A “camp” in northern Vermont is a “cottage” elsewhere. \u00a0A “night crawler” in Vermont is a “dew worm” in Ontario. \u00a0What about idioms and sarcasm? \u00a0Our language is not 100% understood just by learning English from a book. The job of learning a new culture and language will require a lot of time and dedication. It will also require humility… we will be laughed at a lot:)<\/p>\n

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Noah’s first sugar cane<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Ellen and Noah had the opportunity recently to visit friends that are learning language and culture just south of Bogota, Colombia for a week. \u00a0They went to encourage their friends, but ended up learning a lot about our next phase of training by observing their friends in this process. \u00a0When we land in Papua New Guinea, we will spend the next several months “getting out there” and learning about the culture, spending many hours a week with a native speaking language helper as well as studying on our own. \u00a0The faster we learn the language and culture… the faster we can form relationships and feel like we are “at home” and settled. \u00a0It will be easy to want to “hide” or do things that are North American, but we need to dive into the culture. \u00a0Ellen and Noah were thankful to see their friends doing just that in Colombia… trying new foods that they have adopted as new favorites, meeting and visiting with new friends in the market (even when their language wasn’t perfect) and many other things. \u00a0Our family will be doing this in Papua New Guinea with the national language BEFORE moving to a village and learning that language as well. \u00a0With God’s help, we can do this!<\/p>\n

Come with us to WAYUMI in October!\u00a0 Click for details.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Thank you for praying for us! \u00a0Our year of support raising is going so well. \u00a0Praise the Lord, our support is at 48% and we now have 31 people signed up as prayer partners.<\/strong> \u00a0If you’d like to be one of our prayer partners and receive a list to pray for every other month, e-mail us at swensontribe@gmail.com<\/span> \u00a0Also, if you would like to be one of our financial partners you can e-mail us or visit https:\/\/swensontribe.wordpress.com\/give\/<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0We’d love to have you on the team!<\/span><\/p>\n

Praise and Prayer:<\/strong><\/p>\n