Here is a common joke I’ve heard outside the US. The speaker of two languages is called bilingual, the speaker of three languages is called trilingual, and the speaker of one language is called an American.

It’s harder to learn a language for some citizens compared to others. I’ve found that my African brothers are far more skilled at learning foreign languages than I, in part because they’ve grown up around multiple tongues.

But learn the language we must if we want to reach lost people groups for Christ. This is because the gospel comes through words. Paul told the Thessalonians that the gospel came to them “in word” (1Th. 1:5).

The good news doesn’t come through dreams (Heb. 1:1-2) or declarations from the sky or the supernatural gift of speaking in tongues. I would be all too happy to board a plane, land among the millions of Sunni Muslim Yao in Malawi and suddenly preach to them flawlessly in their language which I had previously not known. That gift occurred in the early days of the church and the book of Acts. But it doesn’t work that way today. Reaching the unreached starts with vocab cards, not visions.

This is why most, if not all, of the least reached lands with the gospel are not English speaking. To go there means missionaries must learn Urdu or Tamil or Yao or Khmer and studying these languages is hard.

Here are three ways learning a foreign language is difficult.

Learning a Foreign Language Take Work

Learning a foreign language is difficult because it takes hard work and will cost many years of laborious study. Amy Carmichael, the great Irish missionary to India for over fifty years, actually began her Great Commission journey in Japan. She wore a kimono and studied Japanese but simply could not learn the language.

Poor health forced her back to England after just 15 months, but not before she said you could etch it on her gravestone. She would never, ever be able to learn Japanese. Language study is hard, even for the best of missionaries.

Even the Apostle Paul, missionary par excellence, most likely never learned a foreign language in his adult life, having studied Greek, Latin, Hebrew and Aramaic in his early years.

Learning a Foreign Language is Humbling

Learning a foreign language is difficult because it takes humility. The natives may laugh at you when you make a mistake. My missionary teammates and I have all made our share of embarrassing mistakes in the language, my own blunders far outweighing theirs. I once confused the word shitulu (chair) with shichulu (gravy) and asked a lady if she could remedy my tired legs by giving me a bowl of gravy in which I could sit. She tilted her head sideways and gazed at me as though I had lost my mind.

My dear missionary teammate, more advanced than I in the language, once preached a sermon from Luke 15 about the Good Shepherd. It was then that he confused two similar sounding words: sheep (nyimpfu) and nose (nompfu). He proceeded to declare that our Lord is so full of love that he is willing to leave behind his 99 noses in order to save that one nose. The audience roared with laughter at the moment when the preacher had reached the climax of his gospel message.

We giggle now but the pulpit can be a lonely island. There was a time when your sword of speech was sharp, able to cut through the densest of theological forests. Now your sword is duller than a stone, your rhetorical ability rising no higher than that of an infant.

But Christian evangelists are willing to humiliate themselves for the sake of the word. It is the channel through which the glorious gospel flows. The Psalmist said: “With my lips I declare all the rules of your mouth” and “I will also speak of your testimonies before kings and shall not be put to shame” (Ps. 119: 13, 46).

Learning a Foreign Language is Uncomfortable

Learning a foreign language is difficult because it takes self-denial. It will put you in uncomfortable positions. It’s not natural for many people to speak in a foreign language. It’s even more unnatural to pray in a foreign language. There is an intimacy of prayer that comes through one’s mother tongue. But missionaries worth their salt do this thousands of times over because the first pillar of persuasive Gospel preaching is the word.

Learning the local language often acts as a Golden Key to open unnumerable doors. Invisible walls of discord and animosity come crashing down when one neighbor is willing to speak the language of the other. In Acts 2:6-7, the multitude was “amazed”, “bewildered” and “astonished” when they heard the word of God preached in their own language.

I have experienced on numerous occasions police, magistrates or tribal chiefs dead set against my cause, only to shift their tone and decision significantly when they saw I was willing and able to speak to them in their mother tongue. Words matter. Words in the home language matter even more.

Conclusion

Learning the local language is crucial because the word is the means by which one spreads the fame of Christ. It will take sweat. It will cause laughter. You’ll embarrass yourself and endure discomfort. But it’s worth it all because Jesus is worthy.