the photobook.

During all of our training in the States, we learned a LOT about how to learn another language.  It was great training, but now...it's finally REAL to us.  It has been so great to put that training into practice!  And right now is also training in a sense--learning Tok Pisin is not easy, for sure.  But compared to an unwritten tribal language?  Tok Pisin is much easier than that will be.  So this is great preparation for our future, too!

We figured that some of you might like to know some of the ways we are learning language.  I am going to try to explain one tool that we use:  a photobook.

We are firm believers (along with all of NTM) that language and culture MUST be learned together.  Language is really just an expression of culture, right?  So to really understand and know the people whom we minister to, we must know their culture--not just be able to talk their language. 

So...here are some steps we take in learning language and culture (CLA--remember?  Culture and Language Acquisition).

1.  Plan a Culture Event (CE).

A culture event is simply anything that the people do (well, pretty much anything).  So it could be anything from watching them start a fire and cook food, to observing a tribal sing-sing (like a ritual dance).  Really, just anything they do in their culture!  

So most times, we try to plan these culture events ahead.  So for instance, a few weeks ago we saw a bunch of shells in a bag at Gabinus' house.  They told us that they sometimes go look for these shells that have oysters inside, and then they bring back what they find and they eat the oysters.  So Nathan and I told them that we would love to do this with them sometime!  And a couple of weeks later, we set a time to do it.

2.  Participate in the Culture Event (CE).  Take plenty of pictures.

Pretty self-explanatory.  When the time comes for the culture event--we participate!  Either by observing or actually doing it with them.  In the case of the shell-hunting, our whole family did it with them.  And quite a few other people from the village who tagged along :)  Haha, I'm pretty sure we provided them some good entertainment!  Because as it turns out...the place they go to find the shells is in a total swamp!

Gabinus and Bernadette had told us that they go to the ocean to find these shells.  So the morning of our shell hunting CE, I put swimsuits on our kids (under their clothes)--because we were really picturing wading in the ocean (I had visions of a beach going through my head)...well, it wasn't quite like that!

We got to Gabi's house and the group of us took off to the tais, as they call it.  What is this tais?  We didn't know...

We walked about 20 minutes or so until we came up to the tais--a mangrove swamp (google image it!)...and we started making our way through the swamp--in some THICK mud! Bernadette was THE WOMAN--leading the way, reaching her hands down into that mud and pulling out oyster shells (they call them kina).  Pretty amazing.  I spent most of my time standing on the mangrove roots and watching (hey, someone had to take pictures!)--but I did get down in the mud some, too ;)  

See the ocean in the background?  Haha!  Well, I guess technically we were at the ocean, right?  Just not exactly what I had envisioned ;)  

We were SO PROUD of our kiddos!  Especially Layla and Daisy--they got down in that mud without a second thought.  Brave kids!

Layla and her sweet friend, Natalie.  Bernadette found some kina for our girls--she's so nice! 

3.  Get a Text About the Culture Event.
After the CE is over, we ask the language helper to talk about what we did (and we record them saying it).  So usually, they start at the beginning and sort of give us a story about what we did together during that Culture Event--it usually ends up being about a minute or two of recorded text.  Nathan and I use our iPhones for this, but some people bring other kinds of recorders--whatever works!  I don't have any pictures of us getting a text from Gabinus about finding the shell kina, but earlier on (when we had newly arrived here in PNG)--our group did some "group culture events".  Like one time, we all learned to cook a PNG meal with Amelia.  And another time, Joshua taught us how to plant a banana tree, and how to climb a coconut tree.  Those all count as CE's, but we just did them on our campus with the whole group.  These pictures crack me up!  We look like a bunch of paparazzi, taking pictures and recordings of our language helper :)

4.  Make a Photobook of the Culture Event.
After the CE, Nathan will come back and process it.  Part of that processing is making a photobook. He lays out the pictures in chronological order and then prints them out and puts them into a book.  So Nathan and I each have a photobook that we carry with us, and it is filled with pictures of different CE's that we have participated in.  Here is the layout of the shell kina CE:

5.  Use the Photobook to learn more language!
After we get the pictures in the book, we take it with us to the village or wherever, and we use it! Basically, we show a person the pictures, and say something like this (in Tok Pisin): "The other day, I went with my friends to find some shell kina.  Would it be all right if I tried to tell you the story about that?"  And of course, they always say yes!  So we go through the pictures and try, to the best of our ability, to tell the story in Tok Pisin.  Then, when we are done, we ask them to go through and tell us the story (while we record them!).  So then we get a recording of them telling the story, and of course their language is perfect--so we can go home and listen to it and study it (and realize all the mistakes we made when we tried telling it!).  Then the next time we go out with the photobook, we should be able to do it a little bit better.  It is such a great tool!

Anytime we get the photobook out, we ALWAYS draw a crowd.  The people love looking at the pictures!

There you have it.  One of the tools we are using to learn Tok Pisin, and we will someday use to learn an unwritten tribal language!