Thanks to the Tower of Babel...

Nice going, guys at the Tower of Babel. If you had only known what havoc you were going to wreak upon humanity from that day forward. I mean, really? Thanks to you, there are over 800 distinct languages in PNG. Yeah, it's pretty insane!

Thankfully, we don't have to learn 800 different languages while we are here! One of our main tasks while we are in our 6-month orientation program is to learn the trade language of PNG, which is called Tok Pisin or Melanesian Pidgin English. Not everyone in PNG speaks the trade language, but there usually will be at least someone who knows it anywhere we would go. It's a relatively easy language, and the structure is pretty close to English. We can understand a fair bit already since we've both been here before.

We're required to get at least 40 hours of language study in (including events like church and any formal class sessions we may have), so it's pretty much a full-time job!

Spending time in a nearby village

Our language sessions, both planned and impromptu, will involve lots of time with the national people that live around the NTM base. We'll be combining language learning with culture acquisition, so we'll be trying to learn words and phrases that would relate to everyday events in PNG culture. For instance, a common event here would be planting a garden. So we would want to go with the people to see how they plant their gardens and what kinds of nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc they would use during this event. 

Learning how to cook a traditional meal

Since the NTM base is located near one of the bigger towns, a lot of the national people that live nearby actually do know a bit of English along with the trade language. So we can have a little bit of a help when we start trying to learn specific words or phrases.

So we won't be doing lots of memorization work. Instead, it will be lots of time with the national people getting immersed in their lives. It's kind of exciting, because instead of a classroom setting, we'll be able to interact with people and hopefully be a witness to them if they don't know Christ.

And in the long run, the learning the trade language and basic culture of PNG will help us bridge the gap to learning another distinct language and culture in a remote tribal group. We're excited to officially get going!