You’ve heard of Yiddish, but what about Ladino? Many people are familiar with Yiddish, a German-Hebrew language (a blend, if you will) developed and spoken by Ashkenazi Jews from Europe. Ladino or Judeo-Spanish, a Sephardic Jewish language, is a parallel to Yiddish, though much less known.1 The language goes by other names, such as Judesmo/Djudezmo or Judío/Djudyo (which mean ‘Jewish’), Sefardí, and Haquetía, but ‘Judeo-Spanish’ is official and ‘Ladino’ is most popular. Ladino is a...
Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz Summer School 2017 I recently returned from three weeks in Mainz, Germany at Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz for their International German and Theology Summer School 2017. I heard about the summer school from my colleague who attended the summer school last year in 2016. He had a great experience and recommended the program. I was definitely able to confirm all of the great things he had to say about it! I would like...
The Text that Started It All I received this text message from a friend: “Quick…need a translation/explanation of Luke 2:49.” I found the necessity of a hurried response to be a bit peculiar. Who would need a translation of a verse so promptly? Nevertheless, I supplied my quick, and rather ‘wooden’, translation from the Greek (καὶ εἶπεν πρὸς αὐτούς· τί ὅτι ἐζητεῖτέ με; οὐκ ᾔδειτε ὅτι ἐν τοῖς τοῦ πατρός μου δεῖ εἶναί με;): “And...
This summer for me has been one of language learning and travel to foreign countries — an experience that continues to bring home for me the difficulties involved with human communication. It is hard enough to complete a shopping transaction in a foreign language let alone present a lecture or tell someone how I am doing. Even back home, I feel like my language lets me down and I remain less than fully understood by...
Living in a different country is a unique experience. There are weird things that happen that you could never really prepare yourself for. No amount of research, YouTube videos, or blog sites can prepare you for these things. Sometimes they cause a little embarrassment. For example, when I first moved here to Aberdeen I needed a job and ended working up at Tesco (the Target of the UK). The job consisted of filling online shopping...
Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.-1 John 3:18 She is new. None of us have seen her before. A woman with a modest hijab walks into our English class for the very first time. In many ways she is out of place. She is the only woman in our class and those of us teaching can tell that she is not from the ethnic group...
There is love, in the red letters There is truth, in the red letters There is hope for the hopeless, peace and forgiveness There is life, in the red letters These lyrics come from the song Red Letters sung by dc Talk in their album, Supernatural, released in 1998. For some, this song is undoubtedly very encouraging (that is, if you’re still listening to dc Talk). The Red Letters contain love, truth, hope, peace, forgiveness,...
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