I never realized before how much I rely on facial expression to understand the meaning of words. Today, I was buying a cup of corn at the Cup of Corn stand and the girl serving me seemed very nervous to be talking to a foreigner. She smiled and laughed nervously throughout our conversation, and though I caught most of her words, it was much more of a strain than usual to understand. I kept wondering why the words I was hearing didn't match her expression and doubting that I had heard her correctly.
On the same topic, that talking loudly and slowly thing actually works. I've noticed that when I'm with a group of Thais, they always enunciate and speak louder and slower when they want me to understand. When they do this, my understanding goes way up.
5 comments:
Ang,
what's up with the bird flu? I heard a Thai guy died recently. I know it's probably pretty rare, but is it like the regular flu or is it really that vicious?
I was just wonderng...how did God speak to you about your calling to be a missionary in Thailand? Just curious :)
Nate,
No worries about the bird flu. People are more scared of what it could do than what it's actually done. I don't know of anything going on with that at this moment.
Soaps,
That's a difficult question to answer. I guess in one word, I would say I was compelled. I don't know why, I just always felt I was supposed to work as a (forbidden m-word) overseas. I don't really know where I got the idea. When Eric & I got married and thought about where we should settle, we never got peace about putting down roots in America. Eric had been in Thailand with an organization, and felt a pull back to SE Asia. At DGN (my high school) about a 2/3 of my class was Asian, so I felt comfortable with the idea as well. I guess we just followed the open doors, one step at a time, and each door led us overseas and here we are. We didn't really have an exciting calling, so I guess we'll never be asked to write our m biography:)
The forbidden m-word, huh, why is it so forbidden? Haha, I heard someone make a joke about wherever you don't want to go as a [insert forbidden m-word here], that's exactly where God will send ya, so I prayed that God would not send me to Hawaii as a [insert forbidden m-word here] until after my honeymoon! :)Anywho, that's neat to see how God planted seeds and arranged it all for you guys, and all you had to do was comply. Awww, exciting or not, it sounds like you're in the center of God's will for your lives and I'm sure the great cloud of witnesses in heaven are triumphantly rejoicing, along w/ The Magnificent Splendor, Himself!
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