There was a time God used a travel-size bottle of shampoo to connect me to language learning.

In May 2015, my husband and I went on a vision trip to Japan. We were toward the beginning of our support raising process to be long-term missionaries there.

During our stay in Tokyo, I ran out of shampoo, so I stopped at a local store by the train station to purchase some more. I found a small bottle and saw that the price tag in yen appeared to be roughly $1 USD. Not a bad price for travel shampoo I thought. Happily, I took my place in line, feeling more competent than I should have. When my turn arrived, though, I didn’t understand anything the cashier said to me. I proudly gave him my yen to pay for my cheap bottle of shampoo.

Then it happened. He stared at me, waiting, and I knew I had not given him enough money. I must have misread the price tag. In a panic, I blindly handed him more money, hoping the amount would cover it. I think I gave him the equivalent of $100 USD, and I could tell he was amused.

After taking my large handful of change, I read the receipt to find that I had spent the equivalent of $8 USD on a bottle of shampoo the size of my hand. A year later, I still have the bottle, now empty. I just can’t bring myself to part with it.

That overpriced bottle of shampoo taught me how important it is to learn the native language if I really want to communicate on a heart level with someone, much less hold a conversation about the price of shampoo.

There are three different writing systems for Japanese. This is my workbook for a phonetic alphabet called Hiragana. Another system, Kanji, has thousands of characters.

I am only a beginner in Japanese. To paint a better picture, I am at the toddler level. It is a very humbling experience.

Japanese is considered one of the hardest languages to learn in the world. (See the infographic below). But I’ve realized that learning Japanese is how I show the Japanese I love them.  If I come to Japan assuming that everyone I encounter will speak English to me, then I’ve failed. I haven’t humbled myself for them. I’ve made them serve me.

Love is laying my life down — laying my pride down. It’s having those “I can’t learn this!” moments but pressing on, whether I like it or not, because I’m serving them. I’m serving Him.

We don’t go through language learning to get to the “real ministry.”
Learning Japanese is ministry. 

I can begin serving the Japanese now. With every character I write, every new word I learn, I am doing so for the glory of God.

Language Learning Infographic

TEAM missionaries go through extensive language learning as part of their long-term missionary service. Take a look at how learning Japanese compares to other languages.

(Infographic Source)