Tok Pisin

Meet Dimad (and his adorable granddaughter Nora).

He was my Tok Pisin tisa (teacher) when I was in Papua New Guinea in 2005. Each morning four other students and I would meet with Dimad. In our two weeks there, we had the chance to practice listening and speaking Tok Pisin, both in the classroom, in small group sessions, and in Dimad's home.

Tok Pisin is widely spoken by people in Papua New Guinea as a second language and is the main way people from different language groups communicate with each other. Tok Pisin is the language I will use to communicate with the Papua New Guineans I meet.

To hear a sample of Tok Pisin, head on over to this page on the Wycliffe Bible Translators of Canada website. You'll be able to hear John 20:31 read in many different languages, including Tok Pisin. Two other languages of Papua New Guinea (Rossel and Girawa) are featured on the site and both sound very different from Tok Pisin. Click on "Most of the Rest of the World's Languages" to hear how God's word sounds to about 200 million people around the world today.