5 Reasons Why Listening to the Bible is an Amazing Language Learning Tool
Table of Contents
1.) The Bible is more comprehensible than you think
2.) It has unlimited “replay value”
3.) You'll learn key vocabulary for ministry
4.) It has a vocabulary limited to its world
5.) It’s highly addictive
BONUS: For Cantonese learners! 🇭🇰
Conclusion
Even if you’ve been reading the Bible for decades you might not realize what an amazing language learning tool you have on your hands.
If you’re at intermediate, it might seem like the Bible is still too difficult.
That the language is too advanced.
I remember reading how Dennis Balcombe (an American missionary in Hong Kong and China) learned most of his Cantonese through reading the Bible.
And he did this very early on in his learning process!
I thought that was just incredible.
It stuck with me.
It made me want to experiment with ways of using the Bible as a language learning tool myself.
There are definitely a lot of benefits to reading the Bible in the language you’re learning.
(I have done a fair bit of it in Cantonese)
However, I discovered what an amazing tool is for improving listening comprehension.
However, this hinges on a few things:
That you are already familiar with the books of the Bible.
That you believe the Bible is God’s Word
If these two apply to you, you’ll love this post.
1.) The Bible is more comprehensible than you think
The Bible can be quite challenging to understand in your target language.
Since it uses quite advanced vocabulary.
Or rather:
It uses some words that aren’t necessarily used in everyday speech.
Some of you have been reading the Bible for decades.
You’re very familiar with it.
Especially certain books and chapters.
The more familiar you are with a certain book of the Bible, the better it’s going to be as a language learning resource.
Because you already know the context and what it’s talking about.
It bumps up your level of comprehension significantly.
It gives you a sense of :
“I actually understand this!”
Even before your listening abilities are at a point where you can follow this type of advanced material.
To give you a personal example:
Some time ago I was listening to the Book of Romans in Cantonese.
I kept hearing the word “got3 lai5” (割禮) throughout one of the chapters.
The Book of Romans is one of my favorite books of the Bible.
I’m very familiar with it.
Because of this, I was able to guess that the meaning of “got3 lai5” (割禮) meant:
“Circumcision”.
(Now that’s a word that doesn’t come up in everyday conversation!)
If I had never read Romans before, it would have been difficult to guess the meaning of the word.
On top of that, if I would have heard the word in any other context I doubt I would have been able to figure out the meaning.
If it had been the first time I listened to the Book of Romans, my comprehension would have been maybe 50%.
Probably less.
But because I’ve read it many times in English (and Swedish) it gave me a comprehension level of around 80%.
When you’re very familiar with a certain book of the Bible, even if you don’t understand several sentences in a row, you still rarely get lost.
It’s a great feeling when you’re able to understand advanced material, even before you’re at an advanced level.
TIP:
If you’re just getting started listening to an audio Bible in your target language, start with the Gospels.
They are easier to follow for 2 reasons:
You’re probably very familiar with its content
It uses simpler language than the Epistles
2.) It has unlimited "replay value"
The Bible completely outshines other resources in terms of replay value.
In other words:
How many times you can listen to it before getting bored.
This is a huge pro for us as language learners.
Because there is a lot of benefit to listening to something multiple times.
(I have talked about this in some of my previous posts about creating Condensed Audio and the 3-1-1 Method for example)
With all material, there’s a limit to how many times you can listen to it.
(except for my wife watching the TV show Friends)
After repeated listening, you’ll eventually get bored.
It becomes difficult to pay attention.
The Bible is different.
Because:
The Bible is much more than just the words on the page.
The Bible is not just a book.
It’s God’s living Word in written form.
It’s alive.
It gives us life, wisdom, encouragement, hope, faith, clarity, and all sorts of things that provide us with mental, emotional, and spiritual well-being.
The Bible is the key to a life well-lived inside out.
There’s an endless depth of revelation and wisdom we can receive from it.
You can sit and just meditate and ponder on a single sentence for days, weeks, or even longer.
God will still reveal new things to you from it.
I remember Bill Johnson (of Bethel Church, California) saying that he read Romans Chapter 3 every single day for a whole year.
Even though he read the same chapter every day, he still got new revelations and learned new things from it all the time.
Because of this depth of the Bible, it’s easy to listen to it on repeat.
It’s still challenging though, don’t get me wrong.
There’s a certain level of discomfort that you have to deal with when listening to something you don’t yet understand.
However, this type of repeated listening is massively beneficial for your language abilities.
Getting enough exposure to words and sentences is key to knowing them by heart.
After repeated listening, the words will begin to become stronger and stronger in your mind.
Phrases start to stick.
(you might even find yourself repeating them out loud to yourself)
I find myself thoroughly enjoying repeating the same books over and over again.
Just to immerse myself in God’s word.
It feeds my soul.
This type of enjoyment of listening repeatedly is definitely not true for other language resources in the same way.
TIP:
If you already read the Bible in the mornings, you can listen to the same Scriptures you just read in your native language and listen to them in your target language afterward.
When you’re on your way to work for example.
That way, the content is already fresh in your mind.
Which makes it easier to understand when you listen to it in your target language.
Now your brain is just picking up on what the words sound like.
Do you want to learn a language in the most natural way?
In a way that’s way easier on your brain?
Learn the 7 secrets to learning a language intuitively in my guide:
Intuitive Language Secrets (currently available for free)
Would you like me to send it to you?
3.) You'll learn key vocabulary for ministry
If you’re learning a language for the purpose of ministry or missionary work, then hats off to you.
You have my deepest respect and admiration.
I have a special place in my heart for people who want to learn languages because of some type of missionary calling on their life.
To me, that doesn’t only include going to a particular country to serve and help people (even though that’s amazing).
If you have a heart for the people and the culture, then you’re a missionary in my book.
Whenever you connect with the people who speak your target language, people will open up to you.
In a way that they would never have done otherwise.
It’s a massive sign of respect and love to them that you have learned their native language.
I can’t tell you how many times people have opened up to when speaking their target language.
It just wouldn’t have happened if we would have spoken English (sometimes English is not even an option).
Knowing certain vocabulary by heart such as grace, forgiveness, restoration, repentance, deliverance, anointing, and to be able to express what Jesus did on the Cross, etc. is very valuable as a believer.
Other people might never learn these words as they simply might not come across them.
Knowing these words by heart, or even certain verses of Scripture by heart, is going to help you in ministry and in serving people.
Whether you’re sharing the Gospel, praying for someone to get healed, or sharing a word of encouragement from the Lord, it will be much easier to do so by knowing that specific vocabulary.
Vocabulary found in the Bible.
Knowing the words from reading is one thing.
It’s when you know them by heart through listening that you will be able to speak them.
By immersing yourself in God’s Word, you will put this vocabulary at the forefront of your mind and eventually on your tongue.
You’ll also be able to listen to sermons from Christian speakers in your target language.
Which will reinforce and deepen your familiarity with the vocabulary even more.
4.) It has a vocabulary limited to its world
Even though the Bible has a lot of content, it’s still confined to its world.
A good way to maximize learning is to stay within a certain “vocabulary world” when learning.
To not learn vocabulary from 10 different topics at once time, but to limit your scope for a little bit.
It makes it easier to feel and experience your progress.
It doesn’t mean you can’t learn about all sorts of different topics eventually, but I find it’s better to not do all of them at once.
What’s so good about learning from the Bible is that it’s all in the same world.
(you’re not going to hear words about shopping or Netflix)
The words and phrases repeat.
Which is something that always helps to learn vocabulary.
You become very familiar with those particular words.
When you know a word to a level where the moment you hear it it’s instantly converted into meaning - it does something important:
You no longer require the same brain capacity to process it.
It frees your mind up to focus on other things.
To learn new vocabulary.
The words that used to pass you by (without you noticing them) will now stand out and be ripe for you to learn.
There’s also enough content in the Bible to last you for quite some time.
(My Cantonese New Testament Bible has 24 hours+ worth of listening material).
5.) It’s highly addictive
I heard a quote once from someone about hunger when it comes to reading the Bible:
“The more you consume, the hungrier you get”.
It’s the opposite of physical hunger.
When we’re physically hungry, we get full by eating food.
When it comes to reading the Bible our desire for it grows the more time we spend on it.
It becomes addictive.
This makes it easy to get a lot of volume in.
Which is very powerful for your language learning.
Because time spent with the language is one of the best predictors of success.
It also makes you hungrier to read more of the Word in English.
Sometimes it might be the result of listening to a chapter of the Bible that you find difficult to understand.
So to clear up some of the ambiguity you read more, and gain an even deeper understanding of the Bible.
Just reading the same chapter in different languages also deepens your understanding.
Because different languages express things differently.
It makes you see things from different perspectives.
I’ve been listening to the Bible in Cantonese quite regularly for the past 9-10 months.
It’s been amazing and very motivating.
Because listening to the Bible gives you so much more than just improving in your target language.
I’m a big believer in not just doing pure language learning activities, but combining them with other learning activities.
Such as reading personal development books to learn new things and grow as a person.
Well, the Bible is the ultimate personal development book.
When you have a motivation that goes beyond the actual language it significantly increases motivation.
You’re getting multiple benefits at the same time.
Even when your brain can’t comprehend the meaning, your spirit can still feel it and it does good for the soul.
BONUS: For Cantonese learners! 🇭🇰
If you’re learning Cantonese, I have an awesome recommendation for you.
St Stephen’s Society (which is the ministry of American Hong Kong missionary Jackie Pullinger) has an excellent audio version of the entire New Testament.
It’s in colloquial Cantonese, in contrast to more SWC (Standard Written Chinese) Bible resources out there.
It has very high-quality audio and uses multiple voices for the narrator, Jesus, the Apostles, and others, along with sound effects to make it feel more like you’re right there.
It also has background music (which may or may not be your cup of tea - I personally love it).
It’s available to download in mp3 format for free at Hong Kong Bible.
What I did was I added the mp3 files to LingQ.
That way I was able to organize the chapters into playlists. It also tracks listening time, how many times I’ve listened to a certain chapter, and so on.
It keeps the Bible organized and ready for me to listen to at the click of a button on my phone.
Conclusion
As you can see, there are some powerful reasons why the Bible is an amazing language learning tool.
Especially when you add all of them together.
All you need to do is press play and let the powerful living Word of the Bible wash over you.
Increasing your language gains while at the same time investing in your spiritual, emotional, and mental well-being.
Listening to an audio version of the Bible will not only massively improve your target language comprehension.
You’re also growing in wisdom and in the knowledge of how God and His Kingdom operate.
It will influence your intimacy with the Lord in a big way.
Have you ever used audio Bibles as a language learning tool? Let me know in the comments. I’m curious to know!
