Post Script

An interesting quirk about speaking English in Thailand:

Last night, myself, Jon Fairbridge & our visiting friends from Canada went down to Khao San road to hang out. We stopped into the Starbucks there to caffeinate ourselves sufficiently for the evening. As I handed the barista my Bangkok Bank card, she asked if I lived in Thailand.

"Yes I do," I said.

"What do you do?"

"I am a teacher. I teach English."

"Where?"

"At an English school in Nonthaburi."

"Really? I am from Nonthaburi! Close to Nonthaburi pier," she said.

"Wow! And you work all the way down here?" I asked--Khao San is easily a half hour taxi ride away, about a 300 baht round trip.

"Yes."

"How come?" I wondered, since there was a Starbucks at the Central Plaza mall on Rattanathibet Road, not more that a 15 minute's walk from the pier.

"River taxi," she said with a smile as she busily worked behind the counter finishing up my drink.

Ahh, English as a Second Language! She spoke excellent English, with barely even any accent, but my question skipped right over her comprehension level due to this, perhaps our most irregular interrogative structure! In any other language, "how come" would have meant, "How do you come here" (as it would in Thai), but in English, it doesn't mean this at all.

It's amazing, the idioms that we take for granted, isn't it?

Learnage

Things that I've learned about myself so far this year:

• I'm pretty sure that my calling's not to be a Math teacher. I feel remarkably gifted in & rewarded by teaching--just not by learning math (and maybe not teaching high school students).
• I'm pretty sure that my calling is much more directed toward full-time ministry with a primary focus on outreach, as opposed to the outreach being a tacked-on thing. Three years ago, if you had asked me if I was going to pursue a life of full time ministry, I probably would have told you that you were out of your mind. Interesting how things change...
• Language barriers suck. I think that we (or me), as North Americans, largely miss out upon the mission field where we could have the greatest impact: next door. I myself have been made extremely aware at how poor of a steward I have been with the time I could be spending with the seeking / hurt individuals in my home community. Whenever I get back to Canada, I'm hoping that this will change.