Missionary Language Learning in a World Hierarchy of Languages

Abstract

Languages are organized into a hierarchy of multilingualism based on patterns of learning and use. Native speakers of English, at the top of the hierarchy. find the popularity of English to be convenient. However, it is also detrimental to the work ofEnglish-speaking missionaries, as many are inhibited by hierarchical assumptions from gaining the level of skill which they need in the languages ofthe people to whom they want to minister. Missionary language competence therefore seems to be decreasing throughout the world as English increases, and only conversion of the typical Anglo missionary worldview can reverse the decline.Af mon gl man from Laos, living in a Thailand refugee camp, studied English by poring over discarded English-language magazines like ime. He looked up the words he did not know in an English-Thai dictionary and memorized them. He had only a high school education, but Thai was already his fourth language, after Hmong, Lao, and French; English was becoming his fifth. As soon as he gained some facility in English, he got a job interpreting for foreign medical personnel in the camp hospital and took off in use of the language from there. I knew him as a student at the University of Minnesota.On the other hand, a missionary responsible for the business affairs of a mission in Thailand could not speak Thai even after many years of residence. He said it was to his advantage not be able to speak the language because lower-level business people and government officials who could not talk easily with him would shunt him up in the bureaucracy, referring him to someone who spoke English well. He said he got his business done more efficiently that way, dealing with people who had authority.These are extreme examples. In using them, I do not want to discount important language-learning factors like individual intelligence, aptitude, or William A. Smalley, now retired, was a missionary with the Christian and Missionary Alliance in Laos and Vietnam before serving as a translation consultant for the United Bible Societies in Southeast Asia for 23 years. Part of that time, he was concurrently principal of the Toronto Institute of Linguistics.