Shannon's Corner

Crossing another finish line, I have finished my time at CIT for Second Language Acquisition class.  It has been two weeks full of learning many different techniques, learning styles, the languaculture and hands-on practicum.  One of the thoughts that I wrestled with over these two weeks was in regards to the languaculture because of how important learning the language and the culture go hand-in-hand.  There is no way to separate the two.  We were told that research has shown that many missionaries do not know the languaculture to reach the beliefs and worldview aspects of the people group in whom they serve.  It's at the core where lasting change is made. One of the fun things we did together as a class every day for an hour is phonetics.  Learning the universal phonetic sounds will help in learning how to pronounce the words in our new languages.  Learning how we do things in English and what they do in other languages around the world was very i...

SHANNON’S CORNER August 2016 Hard.   Intense.   Time consuming.   Overwhelming.   Learning tons.   Homework.   Group learning.   Activities.   Ethnocentric.   Fellowship.   Worship.   Solitude.   Being silly.   Community.   These are all words or phrases that come to mind when I reflect back on my time at the Center for Intercultural Training (CIT).   The first four weeks centered on equipping missionaries for cross-cultural service in order to become more self aware of who I am, my identity in Christ, and the importance of learning the Dominican culture that will not only change outward behaviors but reach the heart level for lasting change to occur.   These last two weeks centered on second language acquisition that helps with first knowing how I learn best, tools to approach learning another language or even for me to enhance my Spanish because the language and cult...