Thai Class, Teaching English, and a Funeral

     Amanda and I have been learning Thai for four days now at Payap University. Ajaan Noi, our teacher, is so cute and funny. She is really good at making us practice our tones and pronouncing everything correctly. We have learned so much already I can't imagine what we will know after four months. Right now it is just speaking but in Thai 3 we will start reading and writing. We practice a lot with our Thai friends and they are very nice to go over and over how to say our birthday or what city they are from. Its funny how in English you can pretty much understand what someone is trying to say even if their grammar isn't too good. But in Thai if you say a wrong tone they just stare at you and can't understand at all. Tones are hard and you feel silly, like you are singing all the time.
    English classes are going well. This is our first week teaching everyday and I have had six students. They are all at very different levels so it has been a challenge to know where to start and what they need to learn. I am really enjoying it. You get to know a lot about a person when it is just the two of you and you have an hour to talk. One of my students is a Christian and wants to study "the history Bible" which I think means she just wants to read the Bible in English with me. This is finals week at Payap so most of the students are studying and can't come to English lessons and then they have a two week break so we won't see many of our students for a while.
     Yesterday we had the opportunity to go to a Thai Buddhist funeral. Our friend Un's grandmother passed away and we went as a church to support her and show our respect. Please pray for her and her family. The funeral was in a Buddhist temple and is several days long but we only went one night. It is so interesting to see how it is a struggle to know the difference between culture and religion for Thai Christians. Traditionally there is a time monks chant and the mourners wai the whole time. But all of us Christians did not wai and you could tell that the rest of the people there were wondering why. It was an interesting cultural experience and it made me more aware of how it can be hard to be a Christian here and how we as Christians are called to be different from the world around us. Many of our Thai friends struggle with this in their own families.

Our first day of school in our uniforms!

Ajaan Noi

Off day - watching Wall Street at Airport Plaza

Our Thai class