{"id":307,"date":"2024-04-27T21:14:11","date_gmt":"2024-04-28T05:14:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/travis-lesicka\/?p=307"},"modified":"2024-04-27T21:14:13","modified_gmt":"2024-04-28T05:14:13","slug":"learning-language-is-fun","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/travis-lesicka\/2024\/04\/learning-language-is-fun\/","title":{"rendered":"Learning Language is Fun. . ."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u00a0. . . and it\u2019s a lot of work.\u00a0 Right now our focus is studying the national language of Tok Pisin<\/strong> (Melanesian Pidgin).\u00a0 Learning the language and culture is important so that we can communicate clearly and develop quality relationships with PNG (Papua New Guinea) citizens. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Language learning is broken down into four levels: Basic, Progressing, Capable, and Proficient <\/em>(the highest level).\u00a0 Each of those stages is further broken down into Low, Middle, High<\/em>.\u00a0 As missionary support staff, we\u2019re expected to reach the level of Capable-Low<\/em> before we begin our assigned roles.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We both had our first language evaluations in the middle of March and both scored \u2018Basic-High.<\/strong>\u2019\u00a0 We are scheduled to have our second evaluations the first week of May.\u00a0 If you\u2019re wondering what language learning looks like.\u00a0 It looks like study sessions with a national language helper 2-3 times a week, studying our notes, listening to recordings of the language, reading books in Tok Pisin, and going out into the neighboring village to practice what we\u2019ve learned. Repeat. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Travis and one of his language helpers, his wife, and youngest child at their home.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0Fortunately for us, Tok Pisin is a relatively easy language for English speakers to learn.\u00a0 There are between 1,500 and 2,500 words in Tok Pisin depending on the region.\u00a0 In contrast the average English speaker uses about 20,000 words in their regular vocabulary.\u00a0 Consequently, it\u2019s pretty common for one word in Tok Pisin to have multiple meanings depending on context.\u00a0 For example \u2018sol<\/strong>\u2019 can mean shoulder, soul, or salt.<\/em>\u00a0 \u2018Pas<\/strong>\u2019 can mean stuck, a written letter, ahead, lock, blocked, firm, or tight<\/em> (7 meanings!). And then there\u2019s plenty of combining two words to make a third word: \u2018ai<\/strong>\u2019 = eye<\/em>, \u2018pas<\/strong>\u2019 = blocked<\/em>, \u2018ai pas<\/strong>\u2019 = blind.<\/em>\u00a0 You get the idea. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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And when Travis isn\u2019t studying language, he\u2019s working on a side project, like fixing the light board for the school auditorium. \u00a0If you know him, this doesn\u2019t surprise you.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Thank you for continuing to pray for us as we learn language and adjust to raising our family in a new country and culture.\u00a0<\/em><\/strong> Just like everyone, we have good days and bad days, and we need God’s grace every day. We\u2019re hoping to pass our language test this summer so that Travis can begin working in the aviation department.\u00a0 Travis was able to travel to the SIL clinic to get his flight physical in March (he passed) and is working on getting a test date for his national flight exam so he can complete that around the same time we finish up language learning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thank you for your prayers, encouragement, and support as we serve church planters is PNG through aviation!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Love,<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Travis & Becky<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

P.S. You can read stories and see pictures of current church planting works going on in PNG on the NTMPNG facebook page here: https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/NTMPNG<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Travis_Lesicka@ntm.org<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rebecca_Lesicka@ntm.org<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n

The Lesickas | c\/o New Tribes Mission | PO Box 1079 | Goroka, EHP 441 | Papua New Guinea<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n

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Homework!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Hannah and Grace pet a pig on one of our trips to the village. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0. . . and it\u2019s a lot of work.\u00a0 Right now our focus is studying the national language of Tok Pisin (Melanesian Pidgin).\u00a0 Learning the language and culture is important so that we can communicate clearly and develop quality relationships with PNG (Papua New Guinea) citizens. \u00a0 Language learning is broken down into four levels: […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1177,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-307","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-uncategorized","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/travis-lesicka\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/travis-lesicka\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/travis-lesicka\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/travis-lesicka\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1177"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/travis-lesicka\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=307"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/travis-lesicka\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/travis-lesicka\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/travis-lesicka\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/travis-lesicka\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}