The "30 Other Lands" in the Worldwide Report - revealed!
by cedars 116 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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Vanderhoven7
Marked
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cedars
Thanks BroMac
although it is my understanding that there are 3 countries with ZERO witnesses: Afghanistan N Korea Somalia
That would certainly explain why the Society only refers to "30 Other Lands" when there are in fact 33 that are under ban. They only want to acknowledge the existence of countries where there is at least one publisher! Evidently the three "zero" countries can just be angelic cannon fodder at Armageddon...
Cedars
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BroMac
yes that would explain it! it really is a great visual you've done there.
side note: I was in the Public Library the other day, I came across across a book on World Languages, I did not realise that there are over 6000 languages. 2000 have fewer than 1000 speakers, perhaps many will be less than 100 actual speakers. Also it mentioned that these native speakers would take the language with them when they die as there is nobody to pass it on.
still that leaves 4000 languages of over 1000 speakers or more. Google found this: http://www.infoplease.com/askeds/many-spoken-languages.html
WTS has:
439 languages : http://www.watchtower.org/languages.htm
40 Sign Languages: http://www.watchtower.org/e/sign.htm
11 Braille Languages: http://www.watchtower.org/e/braille.htm
Total 490
If we use the lower figure of 4000 spoken languages / 490 = 12.25% of the World
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cedars
BroMac - that's very interesting indeed. Yet again, I have a preconceived notion inherited from my time as a Witness go up in smoke. We were always led to believe that the Society has its "bases covered" when it comes to reaching all conceivable languages. Apparently, not so. I will need to do more research on this myself, but what you're saying certainly makes sense. I guess I should learn to take nothing for granted.
Cedars
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BroMac
the big question will be how many of the 4000 native speakers know no other language. ie. English is not the Highest native language, that is Chinese Mandarin, But it must be the most used and understood in Business for example or on the Internet.
http://www.translationblog.co.uk/exactly-how-many-languages-are-there-in-the-world/
"94% of languages are spoken by only 6% of the World’s population, which tells us that there are hundreds of languages with just a few thousand [or hundred] speakers."
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slimboyfat
If we use the lower figure of 4000 spoken languages / 490 = 12.25% of the World
Obviously not, because the rarest languages are spoken by tiny numbers of people, whereas Spanish, English and Chinese alone account for a majority of the world's population. And because many people speak more than one language, especially people whose mother tongue or traditional language is a small minority language. The Watchtower's 490 languages undoubtedly reach the vast majority of the world's population. If anything the Watchtower has probably translated well beyond the point of redundancy, even producing tracts in Gaelic and Welsh, all of whose speakers are now fluent in English. They also print in a multitude of African languages rather than simply lingua francas such as Swahili, largely for cultural reasons rather than pure necessity.
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cedars
slimboyfat - I would be inclined to agree with you, however BroMac makes some very good points about the sheer number of languages out there. I don't think I have anything to lose by investigating this side of things at some point rather than taking what the Society says at face value. It would be interesting to get a percentage on the world's population reachable through the Society's literature alone, even if the percentage turns out to be flattering. Regardless of how well translated the publications may turn out to be, it doesn't detract from the fact that the Society are seriously hindered in placing it in those countries where the work is under ban or witnesses are virtually non-existent.
By the way, do you still need me to produce references to prove the Society exaggerating the numbers it is attracting through the preaching work, or the worldwide scope of its preaching work?
Cedars
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the-illuminator81
Funny to see that the entire area where there are virtually no witnesses is also the area closest to the spread of first century christianity. The lands which Jesus and the Apostles thought were most important to preach in (and as the bible says are so important that preaching there can be interpreted as covering 'the entire world') are not even a blip on the JW radar.
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breakfast of champions
In the end, what your map shows is that Jehovah's holy spirit, the most powerful force in the universe, the force that created everything that ever existed, seems to have some difficulty in crossing certain political, geographic, cultural and social borders.
For any lurkers out there, is this map a stunning testament to the Power of gods spirit directed organization? Or is this evidence of a solely human endeavor?