A:  Thanks for writing with this question…I think you sell yourself short. I can understand you quite well. Don’t be sad…even though you may not have the command of English as much as you want, you manage to communicate very well in English!

Here are some quotes from The Urantia Book—maybe one of these has got you worried:

“Having mastered the local universe language before leaving the fourth mansion world, you now devote more time to the perfection of the tongue of Uversa to the end that you may be proficient in both languages before arriving on Jerusem with residential status. All ascending mortals are bilingual from the system headquarters up to Havona. And then it is only necessary to enlarge the superuniverse vocabulary, still additional enlargement being required for residence on Paradise. Having mastered the local universe language before leaving the fourth mansion world, you now devote more time to the perfection of the tongue of Uversa to the end that you may be proficient in both languages before arriving on Jerusem with residential status. All ascending mortals are bilingual from the system headquarters up to Havona. And then it is only necessary to enlarge the superuniverse vocabulary, still additional enlargement being required for residence on Paradise.” 47:7.2

” You will not acquire new languages automatically; you will learn a language over there much as you do down here, and these brilliant beings will be your language teachers. The first study on the mansion worlds will be the tongue of Satania and then the language of Nebadon. And while you are mastering these new tongues, the Morontia Companions will be your efficient interpreters and patient translators. You will never encounter a visitor on any of these worlds but that some one of the Morontia Companions will be able to officiate as interpreter.” 48:3.13

I think it is very interesting to think about why we need to know different languages when we progress in eternal life. I was not able to really pinpoint a passage that says exactly why—only that it is something that is done, and something that we will participate in. I suspect that all the way up to our Paradise entry as full-fledged spirit beings, we will communicate in verbal language. You can relate it to your time here in the US—you have tried to learn the language of the US, and you have succeeded to the point where you really CAN communicate…maybe not as well as you would like, but you do communicate in English. If you had gone to classes, perhaps, at the beginning, or really immersed yourself into the experience of learning English, you might have been able to be fluent more quickly. In our eternal life, we WILL go to classes, and we WILL be taught by language experts for this express purpose.

As you pointed out, you enjoy mental “conversations” with your departed mother, and you consider it telepathic. Now, whether these communication are real or not, I cannot say, and won’t presume to judge, but I find this quote interesting:

“Very much of an adult’s thinking is mentally carried on in conversational form.” 91:3.1

In this quote, we learn that, that with which we communicate in our mental life is our Alter Ego . This is not in any way meant to say that your conversation with your mother was not real, only that you might think of it in a different way…

Nowhere that I can find in The Urantia Book does it talk about mental telepathy—either here on earth, or in our eternal careers; instead we are taught that language is an important part of both our earthly, and our eternal lives. Even angels learn our languages, as well as their own native tongue. And when we pass into the ascending life, we too, will be expected to master the languages of the worlds that we will visit and sojourn on.

As I told you once before, you needn’t worry about this necessity. Already you have practically mastered one new language besides your native tongue—this is an accomplishment that relatively few can claim—and that includes me. I know only a little bit of Spanish, and that’s about all, outside of English. The fact that it has taken you a long time probably speaks less of your intelligence than it does about the people with whom you speak regularly. I am guessing that you have many of your own native-speakers among your associates, and this can make learning English more time-consuming than if you were completely surrounded by English-speakers from the beginning. In eternity, you will learn much more quickly.

Instead of dreading this future language requirement, try to see it as a great opportunity for advancement of your spirit self. There will be many, many souls with you on your journey; some will be smarter than you, and some will not, but all of us will help one another. The teachers/translators on the new worlds will be kind and patient, and you will succeed. Even if it does take an eternity to learn—well, that is just what you’ll have, so time will not be an issue for you once you get there…

I hope that my reply is helpful to you. Please write back any time!”