Do I Need to Know THIS Word?

One of the challenges of language study is deciding which words to try to remember and which ones to not worry about. Ideally, I would be able to remember and incorporate into my working knowledge all of the new Thai words that I encounter in my reading and conversation. But, there are a LOT of new words that I encounter all the time. In working through a Thai novel about the history of democracy in Thailand, every page has many words that I either have not encountered before or still haven't learned well enough to actually use them. Here's an example: In my novel, the word meru (เมรุ), pronounced "main", has come up a couple times in the context of funerals. The immediate context in the novel didn't give me enough information to figure it out but upon looking it up in the dictionary, I've found out that it means "funeral pyre" or "crematorium". So, I think it is that little building on the temple grounds where they burn the body after a Buddhist funeral. Now, is this something I should make a point of remembering? It's not a word that I hear come up in conversation very often and if I remember correctly, I usually hear people talk about "the place where you burn the body" (ที่เผาศพ), and not meru (เมรุ) so I could probably get by without bothering to memorize the word. However, now that I have blogged about, the word is probably going to be stuck in my memory whether I intend it to be or not. And besides that I just enjoy learning new words and trying them out in conversation.

One of the strange things about learning new words is that very often after I learn a new word, I start hearing it in conversation whereas before I was completely oblivious to the fact that it existed. I suppose that that can be accounted for by the fact that now that I've been made aware of the word, I pick up on it easily whereas before it was just one more unknown word in the midst of conversation and as long as I was able to get the general flow of the conversation, it wasn't necessary to know every word. I have to say though, that as I continue with language study (a perpetually unfinished task), it is nice to be picking up on more and more details in the conversations that I hear and the things that I read. And the more I understand in detail, the more involved I feel with the people that I am talking with, and the more at home I feel in the Thai language and with Thai people. And since we plan to be here long-term, that is a very good thing.

Bangkok Protests (Red Shirts vs. Government)

Thai political tensions are flaring up again. At the end of last year, yellow-shirted protesters flooded Bangkok trying to force the resignation of the then-current government which had the support of former prime minister Thaksin and the red-shirt protesters. The yellow-shirts succeeded and now that a yellow-shirt supported government is in power, the red-shirted pro-Thaksin protesters have taken to the streets trying to get the now current government to resign. Confused yet? I am. Here is a video from YouTube to give you a little bit of the flavor of what's currently going on in Bangkok. There is no explanation of the images in the video unforunately, but I can tell you that the first segment is the red-shirt protesters trashing cars at the Interior Ministry, including one car in the Prime Minister's motocade. The situation is constantly changing so, see the Bangkok Post website for the latest. CNN also has an article giving the recent background and possible outcomes of the current situation. We are following the events through our local Thai TV news and the Bangkok Post Breaking News RSS feed.



For those who are not familiar with Thai geography, our family is not near the situation in Bangkok, as we live two hours distant in the town of Phra Phutthabat, Saraburi province. We do, however, know many people who do live in Bangkok much closer to the current events.

The history of democracy in Thailand is extremely complicated, filled with coup d'etats, new constitutions, and changes of power through means that not everyone would call democratic. For language study, I am currently reading a Thai novel about the history of democracy in Thailand. It is a historical fiction book which follows the (fictional) lives of two men, one a policeman, one a revolutionary turned bandit, through the convulsions of the development of democracy in Thailand from its inception in 1932 through to the early 1990s (Thai edition: ประชาธิปไตยบนเส้นขนาน / English edition: Democracy, Shaken and Stirred). I am finding this book to be particularly fascinating as it helps me to get a bigger picture of what's going on in Thai politics, especially the years of background that have contributed to the ongoing political situation. The author provides an appendix at the end of the book informing the reader which characters were fictional and which were real, which is helpful. Lots of information but done in a really interesting format with plenty of action and dialogue, making it far more interesting than a history text book. I doubt that reading this book will help me to "figure out" who are the good guys and the bad guys in Thai politics (as if were that clear) but at the very least, I expect that reading this novel will give me greater insight into the expectations, trials, hopes, disappointments, and attitudes of Thai people towards their leaders and towards the political process in general.

The more that I can understand people and their situation, the more I would hope to be able to speak the Gospel with accuracy and appropriacy into their lives. Looking at the Gospels, it seems that Jesus always knew people's starting point and worked from there in applying the truth that they needed, whether it be a word of rebuke for self-righteous Pharisees or a word of forgiveness and healing for a crippled outcast.

How do you say "Godliness" in Thai? (2 Peter 1:3)

I was preparing a Bible study on Psalm 19 in Thai, and wanted to cross-reference 2 Peter 1:3 (“His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness... “ 2 Peter 1:3 ESV) but when I went to the standard version of the Thai Bible that is most widely used in the churches (1971 version which is similar to the RSV), I wondered whether the word that they had for godliness (“tham” ธรรม) was really the best choice.

In common Thai, tham refers to the body of Buddhist teaching or the Dharma. In Christian language, it is often modified with the word “Christ” (hence Phra Christ Tham พระคริสตธรรม) to refer to the Bible, or Christian teaching. It still remains however, that the word tham by itself makes most people think of religious teaching, particularly moral or ethical teaching. So, are we to understand that godliness is merely ethical living? I opened up my Greek New Testament to find out what the original word was and found eusebeia. My Intermediate Greek Lexicon (Liddell & Scott) tells me that eusebeia means “reverence towards the gods, piety religion.” That is the general secular ancient Greek meaning. The definition of eusebeia includes “reverence” which the New Oxford American Dictionary defines as “feeling or showing deep and solemn respect”.

So, I am thinking that godliness (eusebeia) in the Biblical sense certainly includes moral living (as the word tham would indicate), but also a reverent, respectful attitude that honors God in all of life. There is a certain seriousness and soberness of mind that is included in godliness. Godliness is not just the ethical things that we do, but is an attitude and a perspective that encompasses all of life. Godliness is the desire and intention to honor God in thought, word, and deed. If that’s the case, how can godliness be conveyed best in Thai?

I looked in three other Thai translations to see what they use. The Thai New Contemporary Version (similar to NIV in English), lumps life and godliness together into “living a life in God’s way” (ดำเนินชีวิตในทางพระเจ้า). The New Thai Translation Version also lumps them together into “a life that is lead according to God’s ways” (ชีวิตที่ดำเนินตามวิถีทางของพระเจ้า). These are both good, in that they emphasize obedience to God in all of life but I think prefer the translation that I found in the Thai Easy to Read version put out by the World Bible Translation Center. It reads “a life that honors God” (ชีวิตที่ให้เกียติพระเจ้า). The word “honor” captures something of the original sense of reverence and respect for God because He is higher and greater than us. Frankly though, I can’t say that anyone of these translations is THE BEST because it is difficult to capture in one word or in a short phrase the true sense and meaning of eusebeia. Even in English, godliness is one of those Christian words that many people would be hard pressed to define succinctly if put on the spot. If you’d asked me not too long ago, I would have answered, “I guess it has something to do with living like God wants you to, and honoring Him, but I’m not really sure.”

Communicating the Gospel in any language is a difficult task if it is to be done well, and the task becomes more complicated when I need to teach the Bible in a language that is not my own. What do the words that show up in the Thai Bible make people think of when they hear them? What words need to be explained, and how do I do that in a way that clears away misunderstanding and builds a right understanding of what God is saying in the Bible? Good Bible teaching that helps people understand what God wants to communicate in Scripture takes a lot of hard word, and one must be a student of the Scripture and a student of the culture. Then add in a second language and I’ve got my job cut out for me. Thankfully, salvation depends upon God and not upon whether I’ve gotten things just right, yet all the same my goal is that which the Apostle Paul gave to Timothy, “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.”
(2 Timothy 2:15 ESV)

Enter the Dog

This past Wednesday I went out to Chaat & Mui's home in Nong Doan to teach Ephesians to them as I do every week. Pastor Jarun and I are hoping that this Christian family will be the core of a new church in Nong Doan. This particular week we were studying Ephesians 2:11-22. Usually it is just Chaat, Mui, and myself (and sometimes Sun & Joshua) but this week Chaat decided to bring along Yong, another guy who lives in Nong Doan. Yong is not yet a believer, has shown some interest in the Gospel, but is still not yet decided whether he wants to become a Christian or not. Since Yong doesn't know much of Scripture (at all), I needed to make sure I gave enough background info as we got into our study. Eph. 2:11 starts off, "Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called 'the uncircumcision' by what is called the circumcision..." and Paul goes on to describe the enmity between Jews and Gentiles that was destroyed by the reconciliation brought about by Christ's work on the cross. I made sure that I went through thoroughly who the Jews are, and who the Gentiles are and why circumcision was such a big deal.

On the whole, my Thai language ability is not stupendous and needs work but I can manage my way through teaching a Bible study or preaching a sermon well enough to be understood and a blessing to others. I mention that because after I had been explaining about circumcision, Jews, and Gentiles for a few minutes, Mui quietly says across the table to Yong, "That's 'sunat' not 'sunak', ok? You understand?" "Sunat" is the Thai religious word for "to be circumcised". "Sunak", on the other hand, is a formal word for "dog". I suddenly became aware that I must have been mispronouncing "sunat" often enough in my explanation that Mui thought Yong might be confused as to why I was talking about "entering the dog". In Thai grammar, you enter circumcision. That's the way the phrase is constructed, to enter "sunat".

So, what did my explanation of circumcision sound like to Thai ears? Probably something like, "Jews entered the dog but Gentiles didn't enter the dog and this caused a lot of problems between them. Entering the dog was the sign of God's promise that he gave to the Jews, marking them out as the people of God. The Jews looked down on the Gentiles because they did not enter the dog, and thus were not worshipers of the true God. And the Gentiles hated the Jews because they prided themselves on entering the dog and thus looked down on the Gentiles." I find it hilarious to think of what I must have sounded like although it is always disappointing to see how deficient my language still is. It is all the more reason we need to depend upon Christ to build his church, and not my ability to speak or persuade, especially in a language not my own. I know that my language will improve over time but the linguistic and cultural blunders of missionaries illustrate the reason why the Thai church needs to be led by Thai people, not by outsiders. As a missionary, I am just here for the interim until a church of sufficient maturity and numbers can be established and carried on by the Thai themselves. In the meantime, I am grateful that so many Thai believers are very gracious when missionaries say things like, "Entering the dog was a great source of tension between the Jews and Gentiles."

Language Progress

Both of us are still plugging along at the language school, making plans to finish up the current units we are working on before moving to our new ministry location in the next month or two. We still are not quite sure where that will be but hopefully will know soon.

In the meantime though, I (Karl) am working on a module where I develop interview questions on a particular topic (in this case, I picked the violence in Southern Thailand) and then go out and interview some people. I record the conversations and then transcribe them in order to learn about on-the-street conversational Thai and see what I can garner for my own speaking ability.

Sun is working on a module called "Christian Communications" which helps in understanding and using language for church and ministry. For example, she is learning the language for praying, for sharing her testimony, for asking people to open to a particular passage, and so on. Of her own initiative, she is also trying to work her way through the Gospel of John in Thai and likes to keep me close by to explain various words that she encounters. Not that I know it all, but for what I do know, Sun prefers asking me than going to the dictionary. Once she finishes up with this module, she will take her first year Thai language exam.

After we finish up our time at the language school in the next month or so, we'll move on to our new ministry location, which is currently TBD. May God grant wisdom and discernment to us and OMF leadership in determining where that will be.

A Moron in the Hardware Store

Today I (Karl) walked into a hardware store to buy a splitter for the hose to our washing machine so that we could run a hose for a sink/baby bath as well. I wasn’t sure of the word for “hose splitter” or exactly how to describe it in Thai but fortunately I happened to see a box containing a bunch of what looked like hose splitters. I picked one up and asked the store employee who was helping me if this was for use with a hose. He said “Yes” and pointed to the hoses so I figured I would pick his brain to get the exact Thai word for “hose splitter”. Holding up the splitter in front of me, I asked in Thai, “What is this called?” Looking at me as if I was some kind of moron, he said very slowly, “Pla-st-ic”. Ah yes, it is made of plastic. I knew that. Obviously the intent of my question was not abundantly clear. I tried rephrasing my question and eventually got the Thai word that I had wanted. I bought a hammer too and that went a little more successfully.

After being away from Thailand for a number of years, my general conversational ability is decent but I lack some of the specific vocab for places like the pharmacy or the hardware store. Some of it I knew but forgot and some of it I never knew. Much more to learn. Tomorrow is a another day to risk looking like a moron but it is also an opportunity to learn something new.