cot cott cut

Last week we were teaching some high school students how to speak English.  The subject I briefly touched on that day was vowel pronunciation.

When one teaches such a subject, one becomes aware of just how complicated the English language is to read and write.  For as difficult as the Thai language is to write (because of the various symbols that can be used to represent the same sound), it is fairly easy to pronounce.  Vowels only have one sound.  Cononants only have one sound.  There are some exceptions to tone rules, but they are fairly few.

(For a light-hearted review of the Thai writing system, see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKVtpCByEy4)

English, on the other hand...

Well, lets start with a paper brand they sell in Thailand.  This particular brand, Alcott, is used by the largest copy shop here in Wiang Kaen.



Alcott is a name that is dear to me.  It is the name of the school I attended for 8 years.  (I am one of few who did this.  When my siblings attended the school it only went to 6th grade.  After I left it became a middle school.)  The school is named after Amos Bronson Alcott (father of Louisa May Alcott).  I also have some relational connections to the name. (For more on that, see my brother's blog here: http://ramblinrussells.blogspot.com/2015/05/genealogy-story-my-wolcott-connections.html)

The pronunciation of the vowels in Alcott follows the standard rules.  Since both syllables each have only one vowel, the vowels have a short vowel sound.

The name of the town that the school is located in, however, is a different story:

Wolcott.

Wolcott is named after the person who was governor of Connecticut at the time the town was incorporated.  He played a critical role in its becoming separated from Farmingbury to be a town in its own right.  I have no idea how HE pronounced is name.  But I do know how I grew up saying it.

If one followed the normal rules Wolcott would be pronounced something like wahl-kaht.  And maybe in some places that is how they say it--

--but not where I grew up (who knows, maybe its changed since then).

Instead it's pronounced more like what happens when a sheep goes to the barber:

wool-cut


 

Go figure!

Students of English, I feel your pain.

I summarize the difference between English and Thai this way:

In English a letter has many sounds.
In Thai, a sound has many letters.

A few weeks ago we were at a conference where there were representatives from several language and culture groups.  My favorite part is when we were all praying aloud in our own languages.  I quit praying just to listen.  I don't know what was being said, but it was beautiful.

Somehow God can figure all of that out.  For me I look forward to that day when language will no longer be a barrier to communication.  I imagine heaven to be somewhat like that time in the early days of the church when "they were bewildered, because each one was hearing them speak in his own language." (Acts 2:6b ESV)

(Meanwhile I will keep trying to improve my Thai language abilities.)

Bitter-Sweet

Recently, our teammates gave us a fruit (vegetable?*) that a market vendor persuaded them to buy.  They did so, owing to the fact that it was such an unusual looking thing.

I immediately recognized it as a fruit from the melon/squash family (Cucurbitaceae) because I had seen smaller ones growing in our neighborhood.  I could remember, however, neither the English nor Thai name for it.  (Our teammates told us the vendor had said it was called fakkhao).  And I certainly had no idea how to eat it.

Since I had my computer open, I quickly found that its name is Spiny Bitter Gourd (Momordica cochinchinensis; Thai: ฟักข้าว), and it certainly seemed like an appropriate name.





The plant is related to the bitter melon**, a popular vegetable in some SE Asian cultures.

We took the fruit home and cut it open.





A quick taste of the orange flesh let us know quickly how it got its name: it certainly was bitter.  However, we decided to suck the pulp on the seeds and it had a slightly sweet, pumpkin-like flavor.  (Apparently the seeds are used to add a red color to some food dishes.)

Bitter.

Sweet.

Both in one.

So it struck me that the fruit is somewhat a picture of life.  Our life gets filled with many kinds of experiences and some of them are sweet, but some of them are also bitter.  Maybe the bitter parts make the sweet parts sweeter--like sucking on the red seeds AFTER eating some of the orange flesh.

I don't think it's possible to escape this life without having both bitter and sweet.  The challenge is to get through it while still remaining sweet and not becoming bitter oneself.  I've met many old people who have allowed their experiences to make them bitter, and they are certainly not pleasant to be around.  People tend to avoid them--which make them even more bitter.

I don't want to end up that way.  So I want to try to practice what the bitter people seem to avoid doing:

Forgive easily.

Don't hold onto grudges.

That way I can be more like the sweet smooth seeds of the Spiny Bitter Gourd and less like its prickly, bitter flesh.

As Paul writes in Colossians 4:6--Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone. 

* Botanically, this is a fruit.  Some however might consider it to be a vegetable.  In a similar way to how people consider a cantelope to be a fruit, but its close relative and similar looking food, the cucumber, is considered a vegetable.

**
The bitter melon, which one can buy in the markets, looks like this.  This is the cultivated version.





The wild version of the same species, however, looks much different.





When the wild bitter melon matures, it bursts open to reveal red seeds, similar to the Spiny Bitter Gourd.

The Summit

This past week it was our joy to attend the Southeast Asian Leadership Summit.

A lesson in linguistics

This event brought together MB Mission leaders from throughout the region.  As such, there were several languages being used.  At times my head would spin from not knowing which speaker/language to latch onto.

Andy organized the event.  He had our agency's mission and vision statement reduced to a quasi-mathematical formula that could be printed on t-shirts that our participants could wear--even in places not friendly to the gospel.




The summary statement was printed in full in three languages on our notebooks, and would have been in four, if Khmu had a written language.

We were blessed by a visit from Randy F. as he shared some stories of how the mission and vision of MB Mission is playing out around the world.




In a country where being a leader typically means having a title, an office and a nice salary while others serve you and do all the work, we were honored to be able to demonstrate the nature of leadership as modeled by Jesus in serving others.




Encouragement

We had the opportunity both to be prayed for and to pray for others.





Worship through music was in Thai, English, Burmese or Khmu--depending on which group was leading.





It is easy to get discouraged when we are constantly surrounded by "problems" that need to be fixed.  As our team has been working to implement changes to bring about lasting solutions, we were encouraged by this conference which laid out a foundation for what we are trying to do--and in a very timely manner.

Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another--and all the more as you see the Day approaching. Hebrews 10:25 (NIV)