Figuring out how to reach people in four languages
3 February 2010, 09:00After church one Sunday morning, I was invited to sit in on the youth group meeting, and they even let me share a quick lesson. The dude with the guitar is the youth pastor here, and has a great heart for God. The class is conducted in a sub-dialect of Mandarin that is common in these parts of Thailand (and in many places, such as Mae Salong, is the main language), but there are some kids in this group that only speak Akha. The guy to the left in the blue sweatshirt is one of them. He has no idea what is being said in the meetings.
There are actually four languages in this town, when you include the national language of Thai, and you consider the fact that Mae Salong is a major tourist destination and almost all the farang (foreigners of European descent) speak English. Knowing a little bit of all four languages will get you a long way here. But even if you don’t, there are ways to reach them, as I would later discover. Keep your eye on the guy in the blue.
~Jonathan