RFL - Reading in a Foreign Language

The other day I came accross an old, snotty college paper I'd written about fluency and reading in foreign languages. For all my research, and for all my interest in German I've sorely neglected a tiny, lovely German New Testament that has been gathering dust on my headboard. So last night I actually opened it.

And this led to a small triumph: I made sense of a German phrase on my own. I learned about 5 words (or less) on my trip to Germany in '99. I hadn't yet discovered that my love for reading would lead me to love foreign language.

I started by reading Matthew 1, and had zero comprehension. (The gothic script is eye-crossing.) Then all of a sudden, I saw "Gott mit uns." I read that, and remembered Gott is God. Mit, I learned in a German Burger King, to order a hamburger mit or not mit cheese. Since I know the English translation, uns must be us. God with us. Dios con nosotros. Gott mit uns. I had 100% comprehension the instant I read it, and it was an amazing feeling. Not just any words, but those words in particular. I've heard them at every Christmas of my life, and sometimes in between.

They were too familiar to catch my attention. Now they are new again.

I haven't had a moment like that since the beginning of my Spanish studies, and I realized how much I miss the first stages of a new language. At first it feels like you're drowning in meaningless, garbled nonsense. Then a connection snaps together, and you understand. Maybe not everything, but something. And you hang all your hope on that one enlightened moment, and dive deeply into more garbled nonsense. And after thousands more moments like that, you realize that the unfamiliarity isn't gone, but it is slipping away.

After a weekend with my Grandparents, who still tease each other in German...after reading a bit myself...after a moment of comprehension...well, they do say the 3rd language comes easier...

The Picture Bible

• I grew up with a Picture Bible, and just recently my mom found our old one and gave it to me. It's been so funny looking through it. It brings back my first impressions of all the Bible stories as I first learned them. My mom was surprised when I told her that I actually still think of the images from the Picture Bible, especially in connection with the more obscure Old Testament stories. I have a very visual memory, so this makes sense to me, but it might sound odd to others. (My brother thinks it's weird, and he used to read these exact stories to me.) Before I could understand the words, these pictures were the story.

• As an adult, sometimes I do my Bible reading without really visualizing how dramatic and colorful the Bible is. Our society is choked with colorful media. They have figured out every effective way to hook our attention with colors, movement, and ideas. Even many textbooks are very colorful and designed with visual hooks and illustrations. Depending on these gimmicks can shorten the attention span, and trick us into settling for being entertained instead of taught. So back to the Bible, the grown-up ones without the pictures. With a little imagination added to the black & white pages, Bible stories are the most interesting, dramatic, romantic, suspenseful, complex, and life-changing stories in the world. And if you don't have the imagination for it, start by reading a Picture Bible. The illustrations are a little old-fashioned now (the hair!), but it's a really fun way to see the Bible stories, and is the perfect way to start out teaching them to a child.