Tongues
I can't remember if I mentioned that I took a spiritual gifts test not to long ago. Did I already tell you this? Well, if I have then I am sorry, but it is just part of this story so you get to hear it again. I took a spiritual gifts test not to long ago. I went through all the little questions online and I patiently waited for my results. Much to my dismay, the screen popped up and the first thing I saw was that my primary spiritual gift was INTERPRETATION OF TONGUES.
I screamed at my computer, "WHAT!?". I immediately thought to myself, "the only person I have ever even heard about talking in tongues was this old woman at St. Mary's United Methodist Church, where my great-grandmother played the piano. Apparently there was a lady who would jump up on the pews and start speaking in tongues. I never actually witnessed this myself. I thought you had to hear someone speaking in tongues and then know what they were saying in order to interpret tongues. So if I have never heard someone speak in tongues, how is it that I have a gift of interpreting tongues?
Once I calmed down and read the description I felt somewhat relieved, but still very perplexed. This was the description: Those who are gifted to interpret tongues help build bridges across cultural, generational, and language divides. People who possess this ability have an innate ability to learn new languages and cultural practices, and can help others understand them as well. Foreign speaking people are attracted to those with this gift, and feel intuitively that they will be better understood and received by interpreters. Interpretation breaks down barriers.
Anyone who was in any of my French classes in high school or college is most likely doubled over laughing right now. I can guarantee you that I was the worst French student to ever study the language. Don't get me wrong - it wasn't for lack of trying, but I just didn't have a knack for it. I put off taking my language requirement in college until the last semester of my senior year. Seeing how I have been out of college longer than I was in college, and I somehow managed to earn another degree since then - I will tell you all a secret. I failed every single French test I took that last semester of college (except one quiz that I made an 84 on). I showed up to every class, I was prepared, and even did my best to participate. But it was a conversational French class and it was so above my head. For whatever reason, that professor passed me with a C. It was the most beautiful C I have ever seen in my life. For a while I kept expecting the college to call and say - there has been a mistake. That is the truth though - so, for me to have the gift of foreign language is the biggest laugh ever.
I think I have mentioned before that I once worked with a lady who only spoke Spanish. We actually got along really well, but then one day I realized she called me "Lucy". I asked my boss, who was fluent in Spanish, whether or not she was calling me Lucy. She said, "Katie, she has been calling you Lucy for months - just go with it." I had no idea, but to this day I am still "Lucy" to her entire family. What part of that scenario makes me a good person to better understand foreign speakers?
All of this to say - I have a new duty at work: translating the bulletins into Spanish. No, I am not kidding. This has been one of the more time consuming and difficult tasks I have done. I have a lady that comes on Friday afternoons and reads over my translations. She is from Columbia and there are still some language barriers for us. It has been fun and challenging. I wish you all could have been there the day I had to explain the meaning of the hymn "Lift Up Your Heads, Ye Mighty Gates."
I have found the trick to translating is to make everything as simple as possible. I take the liturgy and have to make it simple without loosing the meaning and theology. Oddly enough, it is easier to translate when someone else has written the liturgy. Two weeks ago, I wrote the liturgy and it was harder for me to translate what I had written myself. I ended up questioning everything I had written. See, you have to say to yourself, "okay, what is the real point here." Then you break it down and take out all the fluff. It is actually an incredible experience because it makes you think about the things you are reciting in a new and different perspective. Take your bulletin home one Sunday and just try to translate it online.
Please don't take this as me thinking I am an expert or that I am any good at this. Most of the time my new friend laughs at a lot of what I have come up with. I just think it has been an interesting exercise for me to understand that not all of us translate information in the same way. Whether that be because of language, or cultural experiences, or generational experiences. Sometimes, a lot of times, I completely forget this and get so frustrated with people for not seeing things my way. It is a fault - I admit it. (It is one of the reasons I am perplexed by the interpretation of tongues). I challenge all of us to take the time this week to try and translate a part of life from someone else's vantage point - someone elses' tongue, if you will. I suspect we will find a lot of flavor and if we let it - that flavor may expand our own pallets of life!
I screamed at my computer, "WHAT!?". I immediately thought to myself, "the only person I have ever even heard about talking in tongues was this old woman at St. Mary's United Methodist Church, where my great-grandmother played the piano. Apparently there was a lady who would jump up on the pews and start speaking in tongues. I never actually witnessed this myself. I thought you had to hear someone speaking in tongues and then know what they were saying in order to interpret tongues. So if I have never heard someone speak in tongues, how is it that I have a gift of interpreting tongues?
Once I calmed down and read the description I felt somewhat relieved, but still very perplexed. This was the description: Those who are gifted to interpret tongues help build bridges across cultural, generational, and language divides. People who possess this ability have an innate ability to learn new languages and cultural practices, and can help others understand them as well. Foreign speaking people are attracted to those with this gift, and feel intuitively that they will be better understood and received by interpreters. Interpretation breaks down barriers.
Anyone who was in any of my French classes in high school or college is most likely doubled over laughing right now. I can guarantee you that I was the worst French student to ever study the language. Don't get me wrong - it wasn't for lack of trying, but I just didn't have a knack for it. I put off taking my language requirement in college until the last semester of my senior year. Seeing how I have been out of college longer than I was in college, and I somehow managed to earn another degree since then - I will tell you all a secret. I failed every single French test I took that last semester of college (except one quiz that I made an 84 on). I showed up to every class, I was prepared, and even did my best to participate. But it was a conversational French class and it was so above my head. For whatever reason, that professor passed me with a C. It was the most beautiful C I have ever seen in my life. For a while I kept expecting the college to call and say - there has been a mistake. That is the truth though - so, for me to have the gift of foreign language is the biggest laugh ever.
I think I have mentioned before that I once worked with a lady who only spoke Spanish. We actually got along really well, but then one day I realized she called me "Lucy". I asked my boss, who was fluent in Spanish, whether or not she was calling me Lucy. She said, "Katie, she has been calling you Lucy for months - just go with it." I had no idea, but to this day I am still "Lucy" to her entire family. What part of that scenario makes me a good person to better understand foreign speakers?
All of this to say - I have a new duty at work: translating the bulletins into Spanish. No, I am not kidding. This has been one of the more time consuming and difficult tasks I have done. I have a lady that comes on Friday afternoons and reads over my translations. She is from Columbia and there are still some language barriers for us. It has been fun and challenging. I wish you all could have been there the day I had to explain the meaning of the hymn "Lift Up Your Heads, Ye Mighty Gates."
I have found the trick to translating is to make everything as simple as possible. I take the liturgy and have to make it simple without loosing the meaning and theology. Oddly enough, it is easier to translate when someone else has written the liturgy. Two weeks ago, I wrote the liturgy and it was harder for me to translate what I had written myself. I ended up questioning everything I had written. See, you have to say to yourself, "okay, what is the real point here." Then you break it down and take out all the fluff. It is actually an incredible experience because it makes you think about the things you are reciting in a new and different perspective. Take your bulletin home one Sunday and just try to translate it online.
Please don't take this as me thinking I am an expert or that I am any good at this. Most of the time my new friend laughs at a lot of what I have come up with. I just think it has been an interesting exercise for me to understand that not all of us translate information in the same way. Whether that be because of language, or cultural experiences, or generational experiences. Sometimes, a lot of times, I completely forget this and get so frustrated with people for not seeing things my way. It is a fault - I admit it. (It is one of the reasons I am perplexed by the interpretation of tongues). I challenge all of us to take the time this week to try and translate a part of life from someone else's vantage point - someone elses' tongue, if you will. I suspect we will find a lot of flavor and if we let it - that flavor may expand our own pallets of life!
Comments