English Classes

It's almost 2 p.m. Friday, October 20. I just returned with Nobby from a Bible study he leads in the nearby city of Miharu. Miharu is the sister city of Rice Lake, Wisconsin. Folks from Wisconsin have built a small cultural center in Mihiru and that is where the Bible study meets. The center features a lot of Wisconsin artifacts. There are a variety of things for sale, including Green Bay Packer hats and T-shirts. Miharu is about 50 minutes or so away by car. Nobby goes there each Friday for the study.

The last two days have been spent sitting in on various levels of English classes. Teaching English definitely provides an excellent opportunity to interact with Japanese people and to begin building relationships with them. It is, in fact, the primary way used by the Tajimas in Koriyama.

For each of the sessions, I have been asked to share something about Indiana and our hometown. I've also been asked to share something about our sons. While doing this last night, I decided to use a Japanese word to tell how old Elliott is. Unfortunately, I did not pronounce it correctly. Everyone roared with laughter. I will tell what I said on the Sunday when we return to church.

Language acquisition is not just difficult for Americans trying to learn Japanese. It is equally as difficult for Japanese trying to learn English. One reason why is because Japanese do not hear very well the distinction between the letters "r" and "l". The result can be just as humorous as the little blunder I made. For example, Nobby spent a few minutes talking to me the other night about "Floyd" the famous psychologist. It took a while, but I finally figured out that he meant Sigmund Freud. He was surprised to learn of the correct spelling.

Humor aside, I hava a tremendous respect for Japanese who are studying English. The difficulty with hearing a distinction between some letters means they must memorize words and train themselves to pronounce them properly. It has to be an incredible challenge and yet they persevere. Happily enough, this provides us with a wonderful point of contact for sharing our lives and the joy of forgiveness in Christ.

Tomorrow we return to Tokyo to minister in the Megumi Baptist Church. Megumi means "grace".