Words Mean Things

“He then said to me: ‘Son of man, go now to the house of Israel and speak my words to them. You are not being sent to a people of obscure speech and difficult language, but to the house of Israel- not to many peoples of obscure speech and difficult language, whose words you cannot understand. Surely if I had sent you to them, they would have listened to you.’” Ezekiel 3:4-6, NIV.

Communication is tricky between native speakers of the same language with the same cultural background. When you try to share in a second or third language with a person from a completely different cultural background, things can get funny real fast. I’m constantly reminded of this fact as I live and work in Thailand.

Many Thais pronounce the letter “R” the way that we say the letter “L” when they speak English. When I go to the doctor’s office, my name is no longer Pamela but instead, Pamera, pronounced very distinctly as Pammy-Rah.

More than once I have been sitting in the waiting room and they call “Pammy-Rah, Pammy-Rah.” My husband, Dude, leans over and says, “Honey, they are calling you.” Then I remember my name here is Pammy-Rah!

At an all day hospital visit for complete physicals before our Stateside Assignment, a nurse came up to me and said, “Mrs. Pammy-Rah, your cancer doctor appointment.”

“Huh?” I replied.

She repeated, “Your cancer doctor appointment.” And I am thinking, oh no, I’ve got cancer but they didn’t even tell me - they just made an appointment for me. I must have looked a bit stricken as she told me to follow her.

At another desk the receptionist told me that the doctor who had made an appointment for me had realized we were leaving Thailand, so he had cancelled the appointment. Cancel, cancer, what a difference in the meaning of those two words! I realized the fear that can come upon a person simply through miscommunication or the mispronouncing of words.

My husband and I work at an international school. On my first Tuesday morning back at work after returning from the States, Nigh, the young Thai woman who works with me in the finance office, asked if I wanted to go to “play” with her.

“To play?” I asked.

“No,” she shakes her head, “to play,” she repeated.

“To play what?” I asked again.

“No”, she says. Then she put her hands together in front of her and bowed her head and said, “to play.”

“Oh,” I said. “Yes, I want to go pray with you.” I followed her downstairs to a small room where all the Thai teachers were seated in a circle. There we were, seven young Thai women and me, Pammy-Rah, the foreigner in their midst. They smiled at me, and then they began their Bible study in Thai. I didn’t understand a word, but I saw the looks on their faces. How beautiful they were to me and how blessed I felt to be there. With less than one-half of one-percent of the Thai population being believers, I understood the importance of this small remnant of the Lord’s called and chosen. Words mean things, but there are some connections that are even deeper than words.

Pray that:

Pacific Rim personnel will be diligent in their language study.

The Holy Spirit will bridge the gap as believers share the gospel across language and cultural barriers.

Pacific Rim is a region of the International Mission Board, SBC.