This weekend officially marks the end of our first week of studying at CanIL (Canada Institute of Linguistics) in Langley, BC! It has been an exciting whirlwind of settling into our home for the summer, starting classes, and meeting lots of other students from around the world! We are looking forward to deepening relationships with fellow students and filling our minds with lots of useful linguistic information and missionary training over the next eight weeks of classes. During the summer, Chris will be taking three classes, Ethnography, Phonology and Language and Culture Acquisition. Ethnography is a class that teaches students how to observe, describe and evaluate people groups and cultures, which will be a very useful skill in Chris’ role as a language survey worker. Without getting too technical, Phonology is the branch of linguistics that deals with the system of human speech sounds, another class that is critical for Chris’ language survey work. Finally, Language and Culture Acquisition is a class that will give Chris tools that will help him acquire Swahili and settle into the community when we move to East Africa. After having just had my convocation ceremony at the University of Calgary last Wednesday, I began my M.A. in Linguistics this summer at CanIL. It is recommended that linguists eventually attain an M.A. in order to be most effective in their work and I want to be the most effective I can be and reach as many people with the Gospel as possible!
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AuthorChristopher and Lauren Merke have joined Wycliffe to help fulfill the goal of seeing the scriptures translated into every language of the world! Christopher and Lauren live and work in Mbeya, Tanzania doing linguistic, language survey and vernacular media work. As a linguist, it will be Lauren’s responsibility to analyze and evaluate the linguistic and cultural data that is collected by language survey workers. Her role is very important because it speeds up the Bible translation process and makes translators for effective, ensuring the Good News of Jesus Christ reaches people as quickly as possible. Christopher will be fulfilling two roles as a language surveyor and as a vernacular media technician. As a language surveyor, Christopher travels to remote villages in order to gather linguistic and cultural data about various people groups and language groups. This is critical information, as it lays the foundation for Bible translation work through seeking answers to critical questions in the first stages of the Bible translation process. As a vernacular media technician, Christopher’s role will be to help translate various materials, such as the Jesus film and Christian radio programs, into other languages in Tanzania to ensure that the Gospel reaches as many people as possible. Christopher and Lauren are thrilled to be able to use the gifts that God has given them and would like for you to prayerfully consider partnering with them in this journey! Archives
September 2016
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