We all started back to school today and I don't know which of us hated going back most, me or Noah. It's not that I hate Chinese, I love it. It's not that I hate my teachers, I love them. But Chinese is SO STINKING HARD!!! I suppose the challenge is good for me. After all if we are content to do that which does not stretch or challenge us intellectually then we are settling for a life of mediocrity. And I don't feel like a mediocre life is a God centered life. I am not saying that we must all be intellectuals, but I am saying that we must constantly strive to reach the full potential of our abilities that God has granted to us.
So I guess this means that even if our mediocrity is far superior to our colleague's best efforts, to US it is still mediocrity. Therefore, for us it is sin. Ephesians 6:7 - “Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not men.” Col. 3:17 - "And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him." Somehow I don't think mediocrity can be done to the Glory of God. So I will persevere. I will continue in my studies, even though there are days when I just want to drop out and go to work full time. I know that acquiring the language is very important, I just wish that it wasn't so hard.
Oh how I look forward to the day that I can pick up a Chinese Bible and just start reading, without dictionaries, without thinking about the sentence structure, without wondering if that character is a person's name or an actual Chinese word. Right now, it seems as if that day willl never come, But I know it will.
I am reminded of the first Chinese book I purchased in Beijing. I can remember when we first arrived in Beijing I went to Wal-Mart, yes we have Wal-Mart in Beijing, and found a children's book with characters and pinyin. Being a book lover and having a desire to be able to read in Chinese, I immediately bought this book. Now remember I had been studying Chinese for less than a month, so I didn't expect to be able to read the whole thing, but I thought to myself: this is a CHILDREN'S book, how hard can it be. Then I started reading it and found out just how hard it was. I came upon so many unfamiliar words, I came upon grammatical structures that I didn't have a clue about, heck I even came upon familiar words that, in the context, just didn't make sense to me. For example, in this book it talked about a wolf who hadn't eaten east or west for several days. Or, at least that was how I translated it in my head. The sentence actually read: 在大森林里， 有一只狼几天没吃东西了。东西 [dong xi] was where I was having problems at. I knew I knew those words. I knew for sure that [dong] was east and [xi] was west. BUT, what I didn't know was that when those two words were combined they formed a completely different word which didn't mean east or west or anything like that at all. The actual definition of 东西 [dong xi] is thing. So the sentence actually meant that the wolf hadn't eaten anyTHING in several days! Now that makes a lot more sense. But at the time, I had no way of figuring that out. So a year ago I was in the same place I am today, frustrated over the language and my inability to read it. But I have progressed. Today I can sit down and read that story from start to finish without any problems.
So I know that the day will come when I will be able to sit down with my Chinese Bible and just understand it, but the question remains: how much longer........
By the way, if you're interested in learning Greek I came across a website the other day when I was trying to freshen up on what little Greek I know. You might want to give it a try. Koine Greek really is a beautiful language, and it's a fairly simple language to learn as far as vocabulary is concerned. Besides, there is no equivilent to studying in the actual language. So check it out here. You also might want to go to Bill Mounce's site.
So I guess this means that even if our mediocrity is far superior to our colleague's best efforts, to US it is still mediocrity. Therefore, for us it is sin. Ephesians 6:7 - “Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not men.” Col. 3:17 - "And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him." Somehow I don't think mediocrity can be done to the Glory of God. So I will persevere. I will continue in my studies, even though there are days when I just want to drop out and go to work full time. I know that acquiring the language is very important, I just wish that it wasn't so hard.
Oh how I look forward to the day that I can pick up a Chinese Bible and just start reading, without dictionaries, without thinking about the sentence structure, without wondering if that character is a person's name or an actual Chinese word. Right now, it seems as if that day willl never come, But I know it will.
I am reminded of the first Chinese book I purchased in Beijing. I can remember when we first arrived in Beijing I went to Wal-Mart, yes we have Wal-Mart in Beijing, and found a children's book with characters and pinyin. Being a book lover and having a desire to be able to read in Chinese, I immediately bought this book. Now remember I had been studying Chinese for less than a month, so I didn't expect to be able to read the whole thing, but I thought to myself: this is a CHILDREN'S book, how hard can it be. Then I started reading it and found out just how hard it was. I came upon so many unfamiliar words, I came upon grammatical structures that I didn't have a clue about, heck I even came upon familiar words that, in the context, just didn't make sense to me. For example, in this book it talked about a wolf who hadn't eaten east or west for several days. Or, at least that was how I translated it in my head. The sentence actually read: 在大森林里， 有一只狼几天没吃东西了。东西 [dong xi] was where I was having problems at. I knew I knew those words. I knew for sure that [dong] was east and [xi] was west. BUT, what I didn't know was that when those two words were combined they formed a completely different word which didn't mean east or west or anything like that at all. The actual definition of 东西 [dong xi] is thing. So the sentence actually meant that the wolf hadn't eaten anyTHING in several days! Now that makes a lot more sense. But at the time, I had no way of figuring that out. So a year ago I was in the same place I am today, frustrated over the language and my inability to read it. But I have progressed. Today I can sit down and read that story from start to finish without any problems.
So I know that the day will come when I will be able to sit down with my Chinese Bible and just understand it, but the question remains: how much longer........
By the way, if you're interested in learning Greek I came across a website the other day when I was trying to freshen up on what little Greek I know. You might want to give it a try. Koine Greek really is a beautiful language, and it's a fairly simple language to learn as far as vocabulary is concerned. Besides, there is no equivilent to studying in the actual language. So check it out here. You also might want to go to Bill Mounce's site.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment