Last week, almost exactly one year after arriving in the
country, we had our second language and culture check. We were encouraged to
see how we’ve progressed in our studies over the past year. The first part of
the evaluation was hiking into the jungle for a cultural experience. We
harvested the ingredients for and cooked a dish called ginataan. It consists of
multiple root vegetables, brown sugar, sweetened condensed milk, and fresh,
hand-squeezed coconut milk all cooked over a fire. When it was done, we ate it
out of the empty coconut shells.
The next day we were back at our house and we went through a
number of different communication tasks with our language helpers and language
consultants. We would talk about
different things like introducing our family, buying an item, explaining what
our organization does and much more. The tasks got progressively harder as the
morning went.
The following chart shows the different levels. For language
and culture Dan scored in Basic high or progressing low in most things. Holly
scored between Basic high and progressing mid with her highest sections being
grammar use. For context, if Tagalog ends being the national language where we
work Dan will need to reach Capable low in all areas and Holly will need to
reach Progressing mid before we are cleared to begin our tribal ministry. Before
beginning a teaching ministry, we will need to reach capable high.
low
|
mid
|
high
|
low
|
mid
|
high
|
low
|
mid
|
high
|
low
|
mid
|
high
|
Basic
|
Progressing
|
Capable
|
Proficient
|
||||||||
We are encouraged by how far we have come and are more
encouraged that our progress seems to be on track with what is expected for us
after being here a year.
