I didn't realize this but now I am bothered by something...apparently there can be so many different dialects in one country that even the neighboring villages cannot communicate very well with each other.
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I really don't even know my question, is this common around the world?
That is the case in a few areas of the world. According to
Ethnologue, Guatemala has 54 living languages. Some other countries with a lot of languages as well as high linguistic diversity (i.e. they not only have many languages, but the speakers are distributed among the languages, as opposed to having a main language that just about everyone speaks, and some tiny minority languages) are:
Papua New Guinea 820
Indonesia 742
Nigeria 516
India 427
Cameroon 280
Democratic Republic of the Congo 216
Philippines 180
Chad 133
Tanzania 128
Vanuatu 115 (a tiny island nation with only about 120,000 people!)
How can we possibly reach all of these people when they are so cut off by communication problems?
Christ told us: “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.” (Matt 28:18-20)
Many have gone to unfamiliar far off places, learned the language and the culture, and over periods of time managed to communicate the Word of God. Many more need to go.
I don't think language is the main issue though -- if it were, one would expect the majority of English speakers to be believers by now...
