bagels
Honey Bunches of Oats
Kix
large pizzas for eight dollars
Gator Nights
my cat Missy
free movies in the Reitz Union
free midnight breakfast
free dinner at St. Augustine Student Center
Sierra Mist
refrigerated cookie dough
my family
movies in English
drivers who don't seem hellbent on killing me
people who wait until I get off the elevator before trying to get on
people who know how to maintain a single file line
watching Meet the Press live on Sunday mornings
the good people of FYA
not having to multiply the price of every item by 1.54333 or more
Gator Greenbacks
Ben and Jerry's
secondhand stores
Gainesville's bike lanes
UF Libraries' DVD selection
Red Vines
Reese's
the daily lunch specials at I Heart New York Pizza
talking to people without fearing a sometimes inevitable critique of my pronunciation
928's wireless internet
meatball subs
Things I don't miss:
UF Bike Police
homework
going to class five days a week
Friday, May 2, 2008
My Language Can Kick Your Language's Butt
This a blog I've been thinking of writing for a very long time, months actually. While spending the last seven months learning another language, I've learned a lot about language in general and the value of English outside the United States. There is now a lack of English teachers here in Pamplona, both trained and untrained. Given that the going rate for an English tutor here is upwards of 20 euros an hour, it blows my mind that we didn't fill the room when we offered a free week-long English class at the Public University of Navarra. I got a tutoring job through an Irish lady at church. A Spanish lady in her neighborhood wanted somebody to practice with her daughter for an hour and a half every Friday. Oddly she wanted to me to give her a price. I told her ten, and she looked at me as if I were out of my mind and offered twenty. I couldn't argue with that.
We take it for granted because it's our native language, but some Spanish people would love to learn it and don't mind paying because they know its value. When I landed at Brussels Charleroi Airport, it would have taken me much longer to figure out how to get out of there if I only spoke Spanish. The guy at the information desk spoke English and probably French and Dutch. But it's unlikely that he spoke Spanish or Italian and certainly not Korean or Arabic. The same goes for most any country. Everyone speaks that country's language and many of them speak English. Of course some countries, like Germany and the Netherlands, have more English speakers than others, like Spain.
My pastor Dom once told me that you can't separate language and culture. That explains why people like the Basques and the Irish are fighting so hard to keep their languages alive. If their languages die, part (if not all) of their culture dies with it. If I grew up immersed in a culture with it's own obscure language, I would probably want to know it, but as far as many Americans are concerned, English is the only language that exists. My ancestors spoke Gaelic, but I would much rather learn German than pour so much time and energy into learning a language that hardly anyone speaks anymore. Besides, Gaelic tutors are few and far between in the States. The same goes for Polish, which is on the other side of my family. But no matter how worthless a language may seem, everyone is proud of their native language and would like to spread it. That explains the wild cheers from the Spanish group following a Dutch girl explaining at Awaken, "Well my person didn't really speak English so all I learned was '¿Como estas? Bien, Y tu?'".
I would like to say that since writing my last post over a month ago that I've been boldly sharing the Gospel with everyone I meet, but that just hasn't been happening. I finally got around to asking my friends Koldo and Sabier what they think about God a few weeks ago. I was a little disappointed but not really surprised by their answer- everything is relative. A week later I asked Joel, one of the pastor's sons, about his experience reaching out to his friends at the university. He told me that since the students try to rationalize everything, the best evidence he has is his life and his testimony. Not being a native speaker of Spanish was my excuse for being "ashamed of the Gospel" for a while by not talking about it. Did Joel just give me another one?
Yes and no. We do need to share it verbally at some point with words so our peers make the connection, but perhaps 60% of it is our lives and testimonies as Joel told me. As for the other 40%, I just realized recently that the church was built on foreign missions so perhaps being in a foreign isn't much of an excuse. The apostles stepped out of their comfort zones to preach the Gospel everywhere between Jerusalem and Rome, maybe even further. In fact, much of the New Testament, including the Gospels, was written in Greek, a second language for many of the authors. If they can be effective in a foreign land, maybe I can too with a little prayer and perseverance. It has taken me this long to adjust and even start to think about stepping out, which is normal. Now that I've been here for nearly eight months, it is time.
We take it for granted because it's our native language, but some Spanish people would love to learn it and don't mind paying because they know its value. When I landed at Brussels Charleroi Airport, it would have taken me much longer to figure out how to get out of there if I only spoke Spanish. The guy at the information desk spoke English and probably French and Dutch. But it's unlikely that he spoke Spanish or Italian and certainly not Korean or Arabic. The same goes for most any country. Everyone speaks that country's language and many of them speak English. Of course some countries, like Germany and the Netherlands, have more English speakers than others, like Spain.
My pastor Dom once told me that you can't separate language and culture. That explains why people like the Basques and the Irish are fighting so hard to keep their languages alive. If their languages die, part (if not all) of their culture dies with it. If I grew up immersed in a culture with it's own obscure language, I would probably want to know it, but as far as many Americans are concerned, English is the only language that exists. My ancestors spoke Gaelic, but I would much rather learn German than pour so much time and energy into learning a language that hardly anyone speaks anymore. Besides, Gaelic tutors are few and far between in the States. The same goes for Polish, which is on the other side of my family. But no matter how worthless a language may seem, everyone is proud of their native language and would like to spread it. That explains the wild cheers from the Spanish group following a Dutch girl explaining at Awaken, "Well my person didn't really speak English so all I learned was '¿Como estas? Bien, Y tu?'".
I would like to say that since writing my last post over a month ago that I've been boldly sharing the Gospel with everyone I meet, but that just hasn't been happening. I finally got around to asking my friends Koldo and Sabier what they think about God a few weeks ago. I was a little disappointed but not really surprised by their answer- everything is relative. A week later I asked Joel, one of the pastor's sons, about his experience reaching out to his friends at the university. He told me that since the students try to rationalize everything, the best evidence he has is his life and his testimony. Not being a native speaker of Spanish was my excuse for being "ashamed of the Gospel" for a while by not talking about it. Did Joel just give me another one?
Yes and no. We do need to share it verbally at some point with words so our peers make the connection, but perhaps 60% of it is our lives and testimonies as Joel told me. As for the other 40%, I just realized recently that the church was built on foreign missions so perhaps being in a foreign isn't much of an excuse. The apostles stepped out of their comfort zones to preach the Gospel everywhere between Jerusalem and Rome, maybe even further. In fact, much of the New Testament, including the Gospels, was written in Greek, a second language for many of the authors. If they can be effective in a foreign land, maybe I can too with a little prayer and perseverance. It has taken me this long to adjust and even start to think about stepping out, which is normal. Now that I've been here for nearly eight months, it is time.
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