Language

1. Biblical Perspectives 2. Hot Issue: Multi-Ethnic Congregations/Church Communities OR HUP (Homogeneous Unit Principle) Churches? 3. General 4. Videos 5. Websites ____ 1. Biblical Perspectives The Bible as Authority as an Antidote to Cultural Imperialism Bible Translation in Historical Context. The Changing Role of Cross-Cultural Workers (International Journal of Frontier Missiology) A Brief Investigation of [...]

In his book on Cross-Cultural Conflict Duane Elmer observes that in most cultures people specialise in indirect speech in contrast to the direct forms of communication favoured by Westerners. He comments: Although at first it seems mystifying and frustrating to be constantly decoding people’s speech, it soon becomes second nature, and eventually one finds enjoyment [...]

I enjoyed reading a couple of snippets on amusing uses of language in Column 8 of yesterday’s Sydney Morning Herald. One contributor wrote: All Column 8ers who know their French translations will tell you that a coup de grace is a French lawnmower; pas de deux, the father of twins; esprit de corps, embalming fluid; [...]

I’ve had recently read Lamin Sanneh’s thought-provoking book Translating the Message: The Missionary Impact on Culture. One of the points that came through for me was that the very stress of missionaries on the authority of the Bible means that for indigenous Christians who come to share this belief, the missionaries cease to be their [...]

There are two verses that come to mind concerning God’s people having to deal with foreign languages: Psalm 114:1 and Isaiah 28:11-12. Psalm 114 begins: “When Israel went out from Egypt, the house of Jacob from a people of strange language, Judah became his sanctuary, Israel his dominion.”    As Israel remembered the time when God [...]

In his introduction to Volume 1 of Habermas’ The Theory of Communicative Action Thomas McCarthy explains how Habermas responds to what he calls “the decline of the paradigm of consciousness” by making a shift to “the paradigm of language.” What does he mean by this? Philosophical thought in the early modern period has been dominated [...]

In the minds of many today there is nothing particularly unique about humans. We are just animals. Christine Kenneally appeals to hard scientific fact as demonstrating that our supposedly unique qualities are only more sophisticated versions of traits found in the animal world. She describes the human capacity for language as “the last stronghold of human [...]

He’s a former commander of the Special Air Service. He was awarded the Military Cross in Vietnam. A hard man rubbing shoulders with hard men. I would think that Michael Jeffery, Governor-General of Australia, has heard his fair share of crudity in his time. So it’s a bit of a wake-up call when such a [...]

I enjoyed Tony Payne’s identification of an instance of what he calls the “Gus the Greek Fallacy” (= the etymological fallacy). In a movie which is great for illustrating cross-cultural issues – My Big Fat Greek Wedding – Gus Portokalos’ daughter, Toula, meets resistance from her parents when she wants to marry Ian Miller. Gus is passionately Greek. Indeed, [...]

In Column 8 of this weekend’s Sydney Morning Herald there is the amusing story of a Japanese student who, after studying in a Year 11 high school class in Townsville, returned to Japan. He had fallen big time for one of the girls in that class and so he sent her a letter from Japan with [...]