thai class.

I am so blessed to be able to study another term at Union Language School (Module 3!). This term has been one of my favorites so far. I have 3 classmates, from Korea, Taiwan and Japan... my teacher is Thai and I'm American... so 5 nationalities in one classroom! It's a great opportunity to not only improve my Thai (4 hours a day/5 days a week, how could it not improve?!) but it's also been great to learn more about their cultures as well. As with all classes at ULS, the instructions and all our communication is in Thai (although sometimes I sneak in some English for clarification). My classmates are much more proficient than I am, so often I just get pieces of the conversation, but usually it's enough. I've now finished 7 days of class, and have collected a little list of humorous incidents that I'm sharing for your enjoyment & in-culture-ation. It's a little jaunt through my head, with no real significance and in no particular order... (you've been warned!)

1. Thais think that eating durian while pregnant will make your baby strong. I find this incredibly funny. Maybe you have to have experienced durian to really appreciate this, but the only thing strong about durian is the smell. Phew. 

2. I discovered I'm eye/hand cross-dominate (as in I am right-handed but see from my left eye). Again, this was all being explained in class, but it sounded a little concerning as (from what I gathered) it is unusual. So, after returning home, I promptly googled it and found out it's not a big deal, but it does affect shooting! Which may explain some consistently bad skeet shooting I've done... I also discovered, that you can train your eye to switch dominance on command. Which led to me practicing on the BTS and eventually switching... and then I was freaked out because I couldn't switch it back. None of this is really relevant, but you should try it. For any concerned parties though, after I went to bed, my eyes reset to normal. No harm done.

3. I haven't snopes.com'd this, but supposedly furbies were originally a Japanese creation/idea and they weren't popular, so they sold the patent to America. You know what happened from there... In Thai news, a Thai celebrity recently posted a photo of herself on Instagram with a furby, and now they are making a comeback in Thailand... at 3-5,000B a furby. That's around $100-150. (See the range of things we talk about in class?)

4. Today's lesson on gifting: In Thailand, you never gift any sharp objects: knives, nail clippers, hair cutting scissors, regular scissors, anything. Not for weddings, birthdays, or even because you have extra. They're afraid that if you give someone a blade/potential weapon and it's used to hurt someone... then it's on you somehow. Interesting, no?

5. And last, but not least, a little shout out all the times I "puud pit" (speak incorrectly). In general, Thai is built very sensibly. "Tdit" means "close" and "kap" means "with"-- so "tdit kap" means adjacent (close with). "Rot" means car. So "rot tdit" is traffic (cars, close). But it's the tones that'll get you. Dog and mom are really close in Thai, only one tone different... So, I may have told someone once, "He can speak Thai well because his dog had him in Thailand." And by "may" I mean I did... Whoops. Other close words are tiger/shirt, lose/give and time/father. So many mistakes. It's part of learning the language, though. And I'm thankful for gracious classmates and a teacher who is used to figuring out what we really are trying to say!! :)

[month five]

Today is a big day for a lot of reasons...

- Today is the 5 month anniversary of when Claire and I left Fredericksburg for Thailand. When I say that the time here is flying, I do mean flying! It's hard to believe that we've been here for 5 months already... and yes, I know I'll probably say that every month until I leave.

- Today, the "D.C. Three" (as Lorena fondly called us) was disbanded, as there are only two now. Laura left us today to return to America. I greatly dislike all these goodbyes; it seems like there is always someone leaving! But I am grateful for the time I did get with Laura, and the opportunity to get to know her better... and to know her, is to love her. I have been very blessed by her. It is evident that in only 3 months, she has already made a big impact here. She has also been an iron-sharpening-block for me and I have benefited greatly from her wisdom and relationship with God. She has helped me process all-things-Thailand, provided comic relief, and been a thoughtful friend. It was hard to say goodbye to her today, but it helps knowing all that God is calling her to once she returns. She has been well-stocked with hugs from me, so if you see her, feel free to request one of them!

[LaLa, as we have nicknamed her, and our last night at the guest house. We treated her to a farewell evening on the town! Complete with French desserts and a night-view of the city]

- Today marks the one-week mark until the BKK Half-Marathon! With only 7 days left, there is still time to pledge. All of the money raised will go to help the Kelley family in their adoption process... and the giving is done online through YouCaring, so no hassle! If you want more information, click here.

- Tonight I had the opportunity to help lead the Sunday Bible Class. John Lapos was giving his doctoral dissertation in Malaysia and was unable to teach, so he asked me to lead the group in his stead. The first part was for new believers and John asked me to talk with them about how to share their testimony. Two of the people who attended the class were not believers, so when it came time for them to write down their testimonies, I asked them to write, instead, what they knew about God. When it was time to share, one of these two, Mr. Wiichai, proceeded to share the Gospel with me. He is so close to accepting Christ. He reads through the book of John on his own, and says that he does have a desire to know Christ. Tonight he said that he hopes that soon he will be ready to become a Christian. He is someone that a lot of people have invested in and had conversations with. When the Spotswood short term team was here, Ryan spent a couple hours with Mr. Wiichai answering his questions and talking to him about the Gospel. Repeated interactions like that have led him to have a pretty extensive knowledge of the Bible... and it seems like his heart is being softened into accepting what his mind already knows. Please be praying for him!

Other news and updates...

- November 19th I will start a new session of Thai school! Please pray for me. I am very excited about being intentional in learning more Thai, but 20 hours/week in class leaves my head feeling pretty mushy.

- Term 6 has begun! I finished my first week of Term 6... and I'm so excited!! I have 7 classes, and 3 tutees this term. My classes all have such awesome and unique dynamics. I think that this term will be my favorite so far. I think part of it is because I am becoming more familiar with the curriculum and in the classroom, but a lot of it has to do with my students also. I have taught some of them previously, so we have a rapport. I'm more of a known quantity, now. And, all my classes seem to have a great sense of humor and think I'm funny also. A double-win.

- Claire and I were adopted for Thanksgiving! We will be having a home-made feast with the LifePoint staff at Tiffany and Steve's home. I'm sure this will get its own post when it happens, but needless to say, we are thrilled we won't be homeless for the holiday!

That's all for now! Thank you so much for following along on my time here and for your faithful prayers. Sending lots of love and humid weather your way... :)

learning thai.

I say "learning"... but take that with a grain of salt. So far I've succeeded in saying that a little boy is "toothless" (instead of handsome), that "I cough" (instead of "I'm embarrassed") and "2nd floor" (instead of "I teach") and that was just today.

Thai is hard! There are 5 different tones, which result in 5 different meanings for many words. "Cow" can mean: enter, white, rice, knee, etc. So much room for "farang error!" My Thai friends are very patient with me, and while my "Thai" is often met with quizzical looks and "mai cow jai" (I don't understand), they have been teaching me a lot!

Ting gave me a small notebook last month to start recording the Thai words I was learning. So far I have over 80 words in my notebook, not all of which I have mastered, but I am practicing! Ching-ching (really)!

Tonight, on our way back from Victory Monument, Aom challenging me to count to 100 in Thai, which I have never done. Numbers have been a bit of a struggle for me. Not because they are particularly hard, but because I don't practice them enough to really be fluent in them. It took almost the whole walk back, but I did it! (Nung, song, sam, sea, ha, hok, jet, baa(d), gaow, sip...)

As hard as it is to get the tones right and figure out where to place words in a sentence, it has also be so rewarding. My friends and even my students have been very encouraging of my efforts to speak in (albeit broken) Thai. It is also fun (sanook) to be able to pick out words that I recognize when I overhear conversations in Thai.

Noo and Aom are also teaching me a song (well, chorus) in Thai... They said this song was really popular ten years ago, which I believe based on the music video! Haha. The chorus is "mai ow na greng jai" which means "I don't want you to feel like your being a bother". "Greng jai" is a very common phrase in Thailand-- it means "I don't want to be a bother/be inconvenient". It is usually used to turn down someone's offer... but usually if you offer again, they will accept. Especially if you couple it with "mai ow na greng jai"!

[I don't know any of the Thai alphabet, but one of my students taught me how to write my name in Thai!]

I think that come September I will sign up for a Thai class to help with some of my Thai grammar and tones. I am learning a lot just by listening and through my many impromptu Thai tutoring sessions-- but I think having a class to lay a foundation would be helpful. Right now, I can only talk to people about a limited number of things... shopping, food, and very basic pleasantries. I would love to be able to share the Gospel not only with Thais who speak English well, but also with those who are in the lower-levels of English. I think that learning more of the language would really help with that.

Thank you for all your support, and "Praa-jaow oii pawn" (God bless you)!