One more Chinglish Blog from last year!

I was looking back at my Chinglish blog entries and I realized the last one I did was actually a Vietnamese one. That means I hadn't done a "Chinglish blog" entry since last semester! haha! I guess I had forgotten to take pictures or else I had already seen the one's I didn't take pictures of. I don't know... anyway, I have some for you today! Some of these aren't exactly Chinglish, but I still think they are funny pictures, so just work with me on those ones. Enjoy!

This first one is just to show you that they use the British way to spell some things instead of the American way.


Ping Pang





Sometimes the "v" and "u" get confused.


You can't see it very well, but it says "Pause". I had to get this one fast because the girl was looking at me like I was crazy. I jut ran away real fast after I took this. That's probably why it's a bit blurry too. haha!


Try to pronounce this one!


Team one, Team tow, Team three...


Like I said, some of these aren't exactly Chingling, but this one is just funny to me :) "Fire Fighting Facility"


By "O'clock" room, they mean this room is charged at an hourly rate.










I found this in a Chinese magazine. Pretty much everything about it is strange.










Well, that's all I've got! I've been meaning to put these on a "Chinglish" or "Engrish" website, but I just haven't gotten around to it. I'll try to get that done, so more people can enjoy these pictures! Thanks for reading, I love you all!

Hello

Hello. Yes, it's been forever since I've blogged. Yes, I should be doing better. And I will, now that I have an idea of which way I'm going now. Some of you may already know this stuff, but here's a little re-cap of the last two months:

We are living in Stan's grandmother's (Nanee's) house in Gallatin, TN since she isn't living in it now. All thanks to Layna and Danny who so graciously have let us stay here! We are very grateful for them and this house! We have a place to lay our head and our stuff without having to get in the way of family. I'm in the process of weeding out some of our things we don't use anymore and I need lots of space to spread out and look through our stuff! God has blessed us with much but since we aren't using it, it's about time to let someone else! :) We have been traveling like crazy! Whether it's working tree jobs or just visiting friends or family, we've been on the road! Some of you we are planning to come see, but we haven't gotten to it yet! I am in the process of trying to find a job right now and have a prospect or two... we'll see!

Everyone has been asking us, "How long are you going to be here?" We are telling people we will be here about a year. We aren't too sure about it, there are some unknowns that will become known, and then we will know! Ha! As soon as we know, we'll let you know! I haven't been able to sit down and blog yet really because we haven't been home long enough without something else more pressing or important taking up my time. And we didn't have internet in Nanee's house until just recently. The most thing that makes me frustrated is I have missed out on reading all my friends blogs! I am really going to try to catch up! Until then, I may or may not comment on your blogs and I'm sorry I haven't been. I still love you all!

I have hopefully one more Chinglish blog, but I'm not sure when I'll get that up. But you can be looking forward to that! :)

Thanks for reading and I love you all!

So much to write!

1. I am sorry I have not blogged or read any fellow blogger's blogs recently. I've been a bad blogger friend.

2. The reason I have been such a bad blogger recently is because there is so much to write about and I am overwhelmed and finding the brain power to organize it all! This is a good thing, but I need you to know I haven't quit! Hopefully this Friday, I'll be able to find some time to go out to Starbucks and do some blogging (Along with some other things on the to do list for school).

3. I love you all, thanks for reading!

Survivor

I don’t normally watch “Survivor”. I’ve always thought it was a silly show (I still do) but it is entertaining. So we have been watching this season. A boy named Matt is a believer and he is very vocal about it. If you don’t know anything about the show, I’ll give you some info. Matt is getting the bad end of the deal on everything. Everyone on his team have chosen him to outcast. No one is treating him very well, and he is having a hard time with it. I really do feel sorry for him, because he’s not being treated like a human. Everyone is against him and he has the best attitude of anyone. He constantly talks about how God is part of his life and he’s told God he would stay there as long as God wanted him to be there. Well, he’s gone through a lot and is still in the game. He’s gotten some flack for talking about God so much. But, I just love it. I’m routing for him! He is the ultimate underdog.

So, I have a student who usually stays after class for a long time to talk to me. Her name is Toma. “Toma… like Tomato. I like this fruit.” She’s a lot of fun to be around and we’ve shared some simple conversation about culture and different things in China. The other day she asked me what I like to do in my spare time and we started talking about hobbies and interests, and that led to TV shows. She told me she likes to watch “Survivor” very much. We shared some ideas about different people on the show. Who is crazy, smart, good player, bad player, good person, mean person, and Matt. She was interested in him because of how much he talks about God and the rest of the players don’t. I told her that I heard some people who are atheist disagree with the show and said they would stop watching it if CBS kept putting Matt on there, talking about God. This sparked Toma’s interest even more. She said, “Not everyone in America is believing in God?” I explained that not everyone in America is Christian, and not everyone who is Christian lives in America. We talked about how much Matt believes God has helped him on the show and Toma seemed to be pulling for Matt too. We’re planning on watching the show with her next week, and maybe continue some discussion. It's possible nothing may come of this, but it is always exciting to talk about our heavenly Father with someone who doesn’t know Him. Please add Toma to your prayer list, and pray for our interaction with her.

We've talked about emailing Matt and letting him know that how he is living his life on TV is helping us to start good conversations with students. We'll have to look into it and see... Thanks for reading! I love you all!

Teaching Re-cap!

A couple weeks ago I showed "The Blindside" in my classes. Last week we finished the movie and I had them get into groups and discuss some questions. The main question I wanted them to answer was, "If you were in the Touhy family's position, do you think you would do the same thing for Michael? Why or why not?" I had the students write down their individual answers and hand them in to me. I would say, more than half of the students said they would do the same thing as the Touhy family did. Here are some of their answers.


Yes I will…

"We should take pleasure in serving others."

"No matter how serious the racial discrimination was, the woman just did what the intuition led her to do. She expressed freedom, independent, good faith, and also broke up the shackles of traditional thought."

"Yes, I will help him. Today you help him, maybe someday you will turn to him for help." This one is interesting, because a friendship in the Chinese culture has an element of 'You scratch my back, I'll scratch yours.' I know this is evident in the American culture, but it's not really something you would showcase as one of your characteristics. In the Chinese culture, it's just part of a friendship.

"I think love should be shared as long as we have this kind of ability. We think helping people will not only bring happiness to everyone, but it also makes my heart full of love by watching others happiness. We are moved by Leigh Anne and her whole family’s unselfish actions. It breaks up our normal notion about the wealthy people."

"Of course we will, although he is black, his heart is sunshine. He is upward. Not only brings us happiness also let us grow."

One girl said all of these wonderful things about Michael’s character and how good of a person he is... then added this at the end, “The last, I think Mike is very big, so he can protect me. Haha…” Haha! She wrote that on her homework! “Haha…” That cracked me up!

"If I have enough money, I can." This was part of a lot of the answers and just simple as that. The money part concerned a lot of the students, and they didn't think they could help in any way with out money.

“I think love is human smoothes the scar.” Just read that a couple of times and you can figure out what he was trying to say. The most ironic thing about this is the student who wrote this is named Blade Master.


No I won’t…

"To me, he is a stranger who I know little about. I am uncertain if he is really in trouble."

"Bringing up a black isn’t a simple thing…my other kids could not accept this big man. Their life wouldn’t be harmonious."

"I already have two children, I don’t need another child."

"As our traditional culture, it’s very hard to us to accept a man who is so different from us. Especially we consider Michael’s size and strength, he’s a bear of a man. He might hurt my children."

"He looks like a big monster. Maybe if I was Leigh Anne, I will not adopt Michael. Perhaps I will give him some money. Love is broad and selfless, maybe I should learn from Leigh Anne."

I'm just gonna leave it at that. Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed! I love you all!

Vera

Many people in China believe God is a tyrant or a dictator. He tells us what to do and if we fail, he will be angry with us. God is the ruler, and we do what he says to do.

“I don’t understand why American’s believe in the Bible and in God. I have a friend, who told me that God is the truth, but in my mind truth is reality and I can’t see God so I can’t believe in Him. I studied about religions in school. In my book, there is logic, but in the Bible there is not logic. So I want to know why do so many Americans believe in God, if they cannot see him?”

This question was asked of me earlier this week by Vera, a girl who is a “free thinker” in China. Vera is one of our good friends who works at Starbucks and we get to have many thought provoking conversations with her.

I thought for a moment and answered this question, “I believe in God because I have faith in Him. From what I understand about the Bible, God is so much like a father who loves me and cares about me. He wants the best for me. I am who I am because I know he loves me.” She said, “So you believe God because He knows your life, but he doesn’t change your life?” I said, “Oh no, He changes my life all the time. Some bad things happen in my life, and also some good things. When bad things happen, maybe I will be sad right then, but I know God is working in my life and some good can come from a bad situation.”

Vera said, “Oh I think I can understand. Like, if you break your arm then you will be very sad and hurt. But then after you break your arm your friends and family care for you. And you realize you have so many people who love and care for you in your life.” I said, “That’s exactly what I mean. If something like that happens, I am so thankful to God for those things and people.”

She said, “Many people who believe in Buddha believe in him because they want to get more things. So if you believe in Buddha, you will get good things and he will solve your problems. So is it the same as you believe in God?”

“I believe in God because I have faith in Him. Yes, he blesses me with things, but that is not the reason I believe in him. God wants to have a relationship with me.” I asked, “If every time I saw you, I asked for your help and always needed something from you, do you think we would have a good relationship?” She shook her head no. I said, “It is much like that with God. He wants us to have that loving relationship with Him. So many times I just talk to Him about what is going on in my life. And I grow closer to Him.”

“If I am not a Christian, can I read the Bible?”

“Yes! Anyone can read the Bible.”

“So when I read the Bible, will God be angry because I am not a Christian?”

“Ohhhhh, no… He will be happy! He will be so happy because you are learning about Him!”

“Really? Ok…so…I can read some bibles… Maybe I can read with some people who know a lot of the Bible. But (long pause) I am afraid their minds will have some influence on me.”

“Yeah, I think you are a very smart girl and you like to think for yourself.”

“But maybe I don’t understand some things about the culture, so maybe I need to ask some questions to some people.”

“You know, I have some questions about the Bible even though I am a Christian. But I still have faith in God. I don’t doubt Him. But when I do have a question, maybe I will ask Stan or one of my friends and then we will study it together. No one knows all of the answers; we just study together to try to find the best answer. Vera, I want you to feel comfortable to come ask me a question, but I also want you to know I don’t have all the answers.”

“Ok, so maybe next time I read the Bible, I can ask you some questions.”

Then Stan explained how we like to discover what the Bible says together and how we all learn from each other. Because Vera expressed concern about being influenced by others, she seemed to appreciate this style of bible learning. Then Stan briefly discussed that reading is not the only thing he does as a Christian, but he enjoys doing what he has learned.

“So sharing with each other and you can be smarter and happy!”

Our friend, Milissa was involved in the conversation, but came in a little late. Many times when Vera didn’t understand my English, Milissa would act as a translator to Vera, adding to the conversation.

I mentioned at the beginning Vera holding a recipe book she was going to read. We had a long conversation about God and the Bible, and she never opened that recipe book. She came up after her shift was over and left when we left. She’s seeking.

Requests: Pray God gives us the wisdom to help her discover Him for herself.
Pray she is a person of peace. (Don’t know what a Person of Peace is? Find it here in Stan’s blog titled “Any Comments? Part 2/2”.)
Pray that we will not influence her, but that He will influence her through the Word.
Pray that Milissa and Vera will share this with friends, family, and co-workers.