today was disheartening. the more i travel, the more i realize that so much is lost in translation when dealing with two different groups of people, two different cultures, and more than anything, two different languages. in all of the places i've lived, i've never encountered such blatant misunderstanding resulting from a language barrier. watching the native english speakers communicate with the struggling english-speaking koreans makes me feel so discouraged sometimes. it's as though because they don't speak our language perfectly (even though we are in their country) we assume they are stupid, they are insulting us, they are bad communicators, they are wasting our time with their slowness. patience and grace is replaced with dislike and cruel assumptions. there is no struggle to understand what a person means or who a person is behind their stumbling words or long and bumpy conversations. sometimes i wish people could look just a bit further, beyond the language, beyond the sound that is coming out of person's mouth, and just look at the person. and rather than listening to words, listen to the yearning in a person's voice to be understood and to be treated fairly, despite their faulty attempts at speaking a language that is not their own.
perhaps this problem goes beyond conflicting languages and is really a matter of a person's ability to accept and show kindness and patience and love to all people. maybe that is what is bothering me more than anything else.
on a positive note, my pilates class went really well tonight. we did a lot of ab work-outs and regardless of my inflexibility, sit-ups i can do. my instructor even told me i have strong abs. ya me! maybe i can't turn my limbs into a pretzel, but i CAN hold a crunch position without shaking for a solid 30 seconds.
2 comments:
Wow, that was really beautiful. To be able to comprehend that when you look at somebody (Christian or non) they are the image of God is something to be desired. It's an easy thing to say, "everyone is made in the image of God," but to live it out, to apply it is another matter. It sounds like things were a bit frustrating, but I'm excited that God is opening your eyes to it. And congrats on the strong abs. I think mine need a little work.
oooo, well said. the image of God. that gives a whole deeper meaning to looking and acting towards people the way we ought to.
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