I was a missionary in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. When I moved there I did not speak Spanish. I took Spanish in high school for three years but then did not use the language for ~25 years. To learn again I tried many different things:
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Post-it notes all over the place, writing down all the Spanish words for everything. Door (puerta), roof (techo), window (ventana), floor (piso), wall (pared)…
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Watching Spanish Novellas online. These contained too much violence/sex for me and I stopped watching them.
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Bought a multiple language bible, Spanish and English side by side.
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Read books explaining the Spanish language and books in Spanish.
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Found worship music in Spanish and listened while the words in Spanish were displayed along the bottom.
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Watched some programs in Spanish online with Spanish subtitles, a movie I was familiar with in English or a program like Sesame Street.
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Looked for a Spanish class to take in Juarez. You could learn Mandarin, Dutch, French, English, but nowhere did I find a place that would teach Spanish. I looked every year I was there. Everyone went to El Paso, Texas right across the border. This was not plausible for me, crossing was an all-day activity and God had called me to Juarez, not El Paso.
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member of the Care Team sent down Rosetta Stone (thanks Laurie!!).
I did eventually start reading, writing, and speaking Spanish. Many people helped me. The staff of Amigo Fiel, the people who went to my church, my neighbors and friends, even people at the store. Half that town speaks English and sometimes people would see me struggling and help.
Today, I am fluent. Some tell me I am fluent, others say they have no idea what I’m talking about. It’s like Australian English vs Los Angeles English. Same language but different. I continue to work on my language skills weekly with the help of a lovely Mexican woman who lives near me. Thank you Edith for taking the time to pour into me, I appreciate you.
But here’s one thing I have noticed. I now use those emoji things all the time. Do you use those? An emoji is a small digital image or icon used to express an idea, emotion, etc… I even found an Emoji Encyclopedia https://emojipedia.org/ 🤷🏽♀️ who knew!?
I am wondering if people who speak multiple languages use these more often than others. Hoping to ensure they get the idea or emotion across clearly. Or because they think more in pictures because they have multiple words for the same picture. I don’t know, but a happy smiling face is a happy smiling face no matter what language you speak. 😀
Who speaks more than one language? Do you use emoji’s?
Just for fun here’s a bible verse, in emoji’s, can you figure it out….
