We understand fluency in relation to language. But a fluent speaker, in the truest sense, not only can make the sounds correctly, but he knows what his listeners are going to understand by his words. This requires much more than a good pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary. It requires cultural fluency. All missionaries say that learning the culture is important, but I’m afraid most only learn a few customs and the culture that is obvious on the surface of native society. In the same way that language fluency takes hard work and diligent study, cultural understanding on the deepest level is only obtained by digging.
In our last article, we stated that the missionary who will become fluent in the culture must lay aside, for a time, his exalted role as teacher and assume the humble role of learner. The teacher comes with answers, but the tools of the learner are questions. The teacher has little interest in what the people know or believe, only in what he wants them to know and believe. He gives answers when he should be asking questions. For instance, a native mentions that they have five souls or spirits. The missionary quickly informs him (quoting the Bible, of course) that man has a body, soul, and spirit—and that’s final! A missionary with specialized training in culture learning will not be so quick to straighten out this biblically ignorant native. He will have ten or fifteen questions to ask the people about these five different souls they think they have. What are the names of these souls? How does a person acquire them? Do women or children have less souls than men? What happens to each of the five souls at death? What relationship does the living have to these departed spirits? Are they friendly or dangerous? One day the missionary can give out his answers, but first he must have all the facts; he gets them with questions!
Related to the above error on the part of missionaries is the fact that we often ridicule the native people when we are quick to prove them wrong and prove ourselves and our Bible right. For instance, a woman tells the missionary that her baby is at the point of death because someone gave the baby “the evil eye.” The missionary laughs and says, “That’s a foolish old superstition with no scientific basis. Your baby has dysentery because of germs in the water. Stop rubbing his body with that stupid duck egg and give him this medicine!” Yes, they must somehow get the medicine down that baby’s throat and keep it down, or he will be dead within a few hours! But do you think for a minute the mother is going to stop believing in the power of the evil eye or the duck egg? She can’t see bacteria any more than the missionary can see the evil spirits. To her, it is the missionary that is ignorant. After the natives are “put down” a few times by the missionary, they stop revealing their beliefs (culture) to him. They will protect themselves from further ridicule. They may pretend to believe what the missionary says, especially if there is some benefit to be gained from him; but there are many of them all believing the same thing: The bloody flux is caused by an evil spirit; and a duck egg in the hand of the right person, saying the right prayer, will invoke the healing spirit to heal. Everyone knows that! Who is this funny-looking foreigner, who can barely speak our language, contradicting what we know to be true? Maybe the missionary’s pills help the healing spirit do its work.
By showing himself insensitive and uninterested in the culture, the missionary is building a wall between him and the people. He is hurting himself and them; and he may have no idea why this is happening. His ignorance of the culture will only compound his stress and the resentment he feels toward the people God sent him to love.
Lest you think I am only talking about missionary work in backward, third-world countries, let me tell you that serious cultural differences exist between people of the same color and language. I was told by veteran missionary, Dr. John Nordman, that Australia has an 80% missionary dropout rate! The problem could not be language; it must be, to a large extent, a result of the American missionaries’ inability to learn, appreciate, and adapt to a new culture. As far as I know, the Aussies don’t try to heal dysentery with duck eggs, but there are basic differences in philosophy and values. In other words, we have different cultures.
The goal is simple (I didn’t say “easy”). We must communicate a message. If we expect our missionaries to learn a new language very well, we must train them in language-learning methods. If he is to overcome the even greater obstacle of culture, we must also teach him culture-learning skills. Linguistic and cultural fluency are vital if we are to convince the heathen that medicine works better than duck eggs, that the Bible is true and the spirits are liars, and that one day all men and angels will bow before the Lord Jesus Christ.