The Pathfinder Language Study Honor starts with a short task: saying your name, your age and where you live in a language that is not your own. That sentence appears, almost word for word, among the starting descriptors of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR), from the Council of Europe. The complete requirements for the Language Study Honor are in the catalog under code AM-050; here they are summarized, with no answer key, next to what research teaches about learning a language. The Pledge and Law in other languages are in the guide to the Pathfinder Pledge and Law in Spanish and Portuguese. Data checked on October 6, 2026.
What is the Pathfinder Language Study Honor?
The Language Study Honor has the code AM-050 and belongs to the Missionary and Community Activities honors. According to the card published by the South American Division (SAD) of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, it is a level 1 honor, created and approved by the SAD in 2018, with no prerequisite. The South American Culture Honor (AM-051) dates from the same year.
In Brazil, many Pathfinders arrive with a base from school. Since Law No. 13,415/2017, Brazil's Law of Guidelines and Bases of National Education (LDB) has required elementary and middle school (ensino fundamental) to offer English from grade 6; in the wording of Law No. 14,945/2024, the LDB allows high school (ensino médio) to offer other foreign languages, preferably Spanish.
Next comes the Language Study Honor - Advanced (AM-007), level 2, from the General Conference (1938, according to the catalog), which has this honor as its first requirement. Watch the names: the Pathfinder Wiki, from the North American Division, lists that 1938 General Conference honor simply as Language Study, starting with the translation of a 300-word passage.
| Item | Language Study Honor |
|---|---|
| Code | AM-050 |
| Area | Missionary and Community Activities |
| Level | 1 (basic), no prerequisite |
| Created | 2018, by the South American Division |
| Requirements | 6, with sub-items in 2 and 5 |
| Next step | Language Study Honor - Advanced (AM-007), level 2 |
Honor card in the Desbravai catalog, checked on October 6, 2026.
What are the Language Study Honor requirements?
There are six requirements, all demonstrated to the Instructor, who listens to you speak and sing and checks what you understood.
That is why hunting for a filled-in worksheet or a pre-answered honor does not help. The SAD's Pathfinder Club Administrative Manual (2020 edition) bans pre-answered honors, especially those from the internet, and asks Pathfinders to actually carry out the practical items.
The table follows the catalog. On the card the SAD published in 2020, requirement 1 also includes your occupation, and the third option in requirement 5 is going to the doctor; check with your Instructor which version your Conference or Mission uses.
| No. | What the requirement asks (summary) | Skill |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Introduce yourself with your name, age and where you live, in a non-native language | Speaking |
| 2 | Know the days of the week, the months, the seasons and the numbers from 1 to 20 | Vocabulary |
| 3 | Listen to two minutes of a speech, sermon or statement by a native speaker and explain what you understood | Listening |
| 4 | Ask for and understand how to get somewhere | Conversation |
| 5 | Act out buying clothes, eating at a restaurant or asking a store's opening hours | Conversation |
| 6 | Sing the Pathfinder Song in the chosen language | Pronunciation |
Summary of AM-050 in the Desbravai catalog; check the full wording with your Instructor.
Which language should you choose for the Language Study Honor?
The card asks for a non-native language, and there is no shortage of options. The 29th edition of Ethnologue (SIL Global, 2026) counts 7,170 languages in use worldwide, about 44% of them endangered, many with fewer than a thousand users. The 20 largest, on the other hand, are the first language of more than 3.7 billion people.
In Brazil, the National Historic and Artistic Heritage Institute (IPHAN) estimates around 250 languages: besides Portuguese, there are Indigenous, immigrant, sign, creole and Afro-Brazilian languages. Among Indigenous peoples alone, the 2022 Demographic Census by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) recorded 295 declared languages, up from 274 in 2010; the methods differ. Sign language has an honor of its own, the Sign Language Honor, done in Libras in Brazil.
Three criteria help you decide:
- Contact with native speakers. Requirement 3 asks you to listen to a native speaker, so pick a language you hear often.
- People nearby. Grandparents with an immigrant language, families from another country and classmates make good conversation partners.
- The SAD's neighbors. Of the Division's eight countries (Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay), seven are on the Instituto Cervantes list of Spanish-speaking countries, and in 2023 the Instituto Cervantes ranked Spanish second in the world by native speakers, with almost 500 million. For a Pathfinder in Brazil, Spanish is right next door.
How do you learn a language from scratch, according to science?
In 2013, five researchers from American universities, with psychologist John Dunlosky of Kent State University as first author, rated ten study techniques in the journal Psychological Science in the Public Interest. Only two earned a high-utility rating: practice testing, where you try to remember before checking, and distributed practice, which spreads study across several sessions (the idea behind spaced repetition). Rereading and highlighting were among the low-utility ones.
The keyword mnemonic, which links a new word to an image with a similar sound, also got a low rating: according to the authors, it helps with few materials and for a short time. Save the trick for a stubborn word.
For requirement 2, this becomes a routine. Write each word on a flashcard, with the translation on the back, and test yourself without looking; set your mistakes aside and come back to them over the next few days, in short sessions, without leaving everything for the night before. Say the words out loud, because they come back in requirements 4 and 5.
Age helps. A 2018 study in the journal Cognition by Joshua Hartshorne, Joshua Tenenbaum and Steven Pinker, with data from 669,498 native and non-native English speakers, estimated that the ability to learn grammar holds until about age 17.4 and then declines steadily. Pathfinders aged 10 to 15 are right in the window.
Which CEFR level does the Language Study Honor match?
The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) was launched by the Council of Europe in 2001 and gained a Companion Volume in 2020, which added descriptors for sign languages. It divides language proficiency into six levels, from A1 to C2, in three groups (basic, independent and proficient user), and the Council states that it can be applied to all languages.
There is no official equivalence with the honor, but comparing it with the Companion Volume descriptors shows the goal: almost everything the card asks for falls between the pre-A1 band and A2, the last step for a basic user.
| Level | Group | What the person can do (summary) | Similar requirements |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pre-A1 | Before A1 | Say their name and age, use simple numbers, ask what day it is | 1 and 2 |
| A1 | Basic | Introduce themselves and say where they live, if the other person speaks slowly | 1 |
| A2 | Basic | Simple shopping, ordering a meal, asking for and giving directions, understanding clear and slow speech | 3, 4 and 5 |
| B1 | Independent | Familiar topics and most travel situations | Beyond the card |
| B2 | Independent | Talk with native speakers with some fluency, without strain for either side | Beyond the card |
| C1 | Proficient | Flexible use of the language for study and work | Beyond the card |
| C2 | Proficient | Understand with ease virtually everything they hear or read | Beyond the card |
Free summary of the CEFR (Council of Europe, 2001 and 2020); the last column is this guide's own comparison and has no official value.
How do you train your listening for a two-minute sermon or speech?
Requirement 3 takes more practice, because the native speaker talks at their own pace. At levels A1 and A2, according to the CEFR, understanding depends on the person speaking clearly and slowly; choose your clip with that in mind:
- A familiar topic. A sermon about a Bible story you already know gives you clues to the new words.
- A calm speaker. Go for unhurried speech, a good recording and no loud music in the background.
- Three listens. The first for the general idea, the second for the words you recognize, the third to check your doubts against the subtitles or the transcript.
Then explain in your own words what you understood; translating the whole speech is a task for the advanced version (AM-007).
How can the Club practice directions, role-plays and the song in another language?
Requirements 4 and 5 can fill a whole meeting. Set up a pretend neighborhood in the yard, with bakery and pharmacy signs in the chosen language: one Pathfinder asks the way, the other answers with right, left and straight ahead, and then they switch. Next, the hall becomes a store or a restaurant, with a menu, prices and opening hours in the language.
For requirement 6, use official lyrics. The song was born in English, written by Pastor Henry Bergh in 1949, as the article on the Pathfinder Song tells. In Spanish, the SAD publishes its lyrics on the Himno Oficial page of its Conquistadores portal; the North American Division uses different Spanish lyrics, alongside the English original and a French version. For other languages, ask your Instructor for the version the church uses in that country. Practice line by line before singing it at full tempo.
Mistakes that slow the honor down the most:
- Memorizing without understanding. The Instructor may change the order of the questions or the destination on the map.
- Translating word for word. Learn whole phrases, because every language has its own word order.
- Studying the night before. Short sessions throughout the week pay off more.
- Ignoring the culture. Greetings and forms of address change from country to country; ask a native speaker for the polite way to ask for something.
If the Club records the role-plays, do not post the footage without permission from parents or guardians.
Why is learning another language part of the mission?
Revelation describes the eternal gospel proclaimed "to every nation, tribe, language and people" (Revelation 14:6, NIV), a text that inspires the mission of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. At Pentecost, as Acts chapter 2 tells it, each person in the crowd heard the apostles in their own native language.
Bible translation shows the size of the task. According to the Wycliffe Global Alliance, with ProgressBible data from August 1, 2025, 544 languages were still waiting for a Scripture translation to begin; in 1999, there were more than 5,000.
Closer to home, a few phrases in the language of a newly arrived family can be the first sign of welcome; the guide to a project with refugees and immigrants shows how the Club can receive them.
When you are ready, check the Language Study Honor requirements in the catalog and schedule the evaluation with your Instructor. The Advanced Language Study Honor comes next and asks, among other items, that you read and translate a text of at least 300 words, hold a conversation for five minutes or more and repeat the Pledge and Law from memory in the chosen language.