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From Jason McClaflin
Languages have been
of the utmost importance for my family and me since the time of my birth. I was
born in 1977 in Nairobi, Kenya though my parents were living in Arusha, Tanzania
where they had been since 1973. My parents obtained fluency in Ki-Swahili while
in Tanzania, where it is the official language and the most pure. It was because
of this that my parents were able to have the African experience in its entirety
for language is the key to the heart of any people. Without the knowledge of the
language, one's knowledge of any culture is incomplete.
In 1980 we moved to Kenya where the Swahili is less pure and it shares the official language status with English. Having an adequate command of both languages one might think that I was set. However, Kenya is different than Tanzania in at a Kenyan's first allegiance is generally not to Swahili or English but rather to his or her tribal tongue of which there are some 120. One could spend a lifetime learning the languages that exist along a twenty or thirty mile radius. Because of this and other reasons, many of my friends from America and other parts of the world did not attempt to learn any language but tried to get by on English which is possible to do in Kenya. However, they missed out on so much and came away from Africa after many years in some cases, having missed the African experience and with precious little knowledge of the country or its people.
I feel that my exposure to foreign languages not only allowed me to make the most of an incredible opportunity by giving me insight into a people and their culture, but also gave me many advantages that people limited to one language and culture do not have. It also gave me a passion to learn more languages, some familiar and some completely foreign. I now study Hebrew and Greek because I want to understand the Bible and its culture in its entirety. I also study German because of the importance that that language has for theological, archeological, and historical studies. I was fortunate to marry someone who grew up in Austria and shares my passion for languages and that speaks German and French while working on others. We want our children to grow up speaking as many languages as possible not merely because of the advantage that it will give them in school and in relationships with people from other cultures, but because "He who does not know more than one language has no language at all. For if he only knows one language, he does not have that language but that language has him."
In 1980 we moved to Kenya where the Swahili is less pure and it shares the official language status with English. Having an adequate command of both languages one might think that I was set. However, Kenya is different than Tanzania in at a Kenyan's first allegiance is generally not to Swahili or English but rather to his or her tribal tongue of which there are some 120. One could spend a lifetime learning the languages that exist along a twenty or thirty mile radius. Because of this and other reasons, many of my friends from America and other parts of the world did not attempt to learn any language but tried to get by on English which is possible to do in Kenya. However, they missed out on so much and came away from Africa after many years in some cases, having missed the African experience and with precious little knowledge of the country or its people.
I feel that my exposure to foreign languages not only allowed me to make the most of an incredible opportunity by giving me insight into a people and their culture, but also gave me many advantages that people limited to one language and culture do not have. It also gave me a passion to learn more languages, some familiar and some completely foreign. I now study Hebrew and Greek because I want to understand the Bible and its culture in its entirety. I also study German because of the importance that that language has for theological, archeological, and historical studies. I was fortunate to marry someone who grew up in Austria and shares my passion for languages and that speaks German and French while working on others. We want our children to grow up speaking as many languages as possible not merely because of the advantage that it will give them in school and in relationships with people from other cultures, but because "He who does not know more than one language has no language at all. For if he only knows one language, he does not have that language but that language has him."