Language Ability

Via Language Log comes the whimsical story of an NPR correspondent, who, travelling through China, came across a church where the congregation was waiting for their itinerant pastor. When the preacher didn’t show, the foreign guest — all foreigners must be Christians, after all — was invited to preach the sermon.

As Geoffrey Pullum says, this is pretty much the ultimate test of foreign language ability. Could you speak for several minutes in a foreign language in the non-trivial domain of religion?