I have over the past couple months been trying to take baby steps in learning simple greetings in languages often spoken in my area. So far I have learned {ok learned may be generous...more like attempted to learn} greetings in: Thai, Vietnamese, Mandarin, Korean and Cambodian.
Lets just say if I ever run into a mandarin speaking person at the door I can give them a tract and say "this is for you" and when I go into Happy Donut I can say "hello" and "goodbye" and when I am ready for a coffee break in the ministry I can suggest "coffee" to my korean speaking sister-friend and then say "thank you." What more could I ask for?!
The greatest that I have gained from forcing myself to awkwardly speak in a language I am sure I am butchering is the smile it puts on someone's face when they realize I have taken an extra step in making them feel a little more loved. It even came in handy at work when recently a cambodian speaking dad came in with his english speaking daughter to get insurance. We communicated perfectly but at the end of the discussion I said goodbye in cambodian and his face lit up! I really hope to continue expanding my vocabulary and make some more faces light.
Here are my phonetic notes that my buddies have helped me with:
2 comments:
we had two familys go to foreign language im so happy for them
bobby
Great job Juli. I agree language is hard to tackle. I think sign language was a little easier to tackle for me anyways.
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