So I stayed up late working on my Mandarin homework and managed to sleep through class because of it. That is really kind of sad because it just makes the whole thing not very useful. I don't turn in my homework and I don't learn more in class. So I'm running a bit low on money these days. I think I am not going to take Chinese next semester and instead learn on my own. I think I can learn much faster by myself without some of the slow classmates. I can meet with native speakers more often as well. I will try this over winter break to see if I can handle it. I may only take 6 credit hours next semester--Uyghur and a linguistics course. We'll see. That will give me more time to work on Mandarin and Japanese outside of school.
Tonight I am running sound at my friends', Matt and John, concert at a bar. It starts at 11pm which is a bit too late. I have to work at 8am, but it should be okay. Another week of lower sleep, but the semester is almost over.
A Turkish guy is looking for an American roommate. I am thinking about this.
I could go to Germany for $200 in January, Turkey for $500. I have to use my airline vouchers soon, but I don't have that extra money right now. I bet it kind of sucks during the winter, but maybe not so bad. Hmmm.....
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Boom
Hey everybody. I am back from Florida and got the last two weeks of the semester left.
Still studying, but not as I originally planned. The important thing is that I haven't stopped yet. My japanese improved a lot in comprehension over the break. Trying to keep going.
我還是去學校。
Still studying, but not as I originally planned. The important thing is that I haven't stopped yet. My japanese improved a lot in comprehension over the break. Trying to keep going.
我還是去學校。
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
the gods aren't angry
So last night I went to Rob Bell's tour of the gods aren't angry: why humans invented religion to make themselves feel better. I think every time I do something that involves Rob Bell I tend to go in a bit skeptical, but once again, I was entirely surprised. Unfortunately giving a short sort of summary of the entire talk, I won't do it justice, but I will try.
The focus of the talk was about how people throughout history tend to deal with pleasing uncontrollable forces around them (weather, life, death,...). I think most religions would fall into some sort of category of this sort. Having rituals aimed for some purpose such as forgiveness, self edification or the like. And also from the beginning of the Hebrew people in the bible, this is how God has been contrasting with this image. People innately feel this kind of guilt or shame that drives them to have to do something. Religion really pulls that guilt out internally in people. I think that's why when people come to church they instantly feel judged without any sort of reasonable reason to. Yes of course some churches may be on the uber judgemental side, but that problem is magnified by our internal thought process. But from the beginning, God has been saying that He works differently from that. People had always done sacrifices in order to please whatever forces they were unable to control, but even in the Levitical code the sacrifices were intended for celebration. Psalm 50 says, "If I were hungry I would not tell you, for the world is mine, and all that is in it," and in Hebrews 10:11 says, "again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins." (yes it looks like those verses are pulled out of nowhere, but I think you will see their context fits fine in speaking of these things) The interesting thing about this is that we cannot sacrifice anything in that way to God in order for sins to be forgiven. That begs the question of why did God want the Isrealites to do the sacrifices if they didn't really do anything. The other question is why does God ask Abraham to sacrifice Isaac. I think that is because Abraham would expect a god to ask something like that during the time. In the modern day, the whole thing sounds preposterous, but within the context of the time, it's easier to understand why Abraham did not complain. And God did show that he was different when Abraham was right on the edge of sacrificing his own son--I think He really did want Abraham to comprehend well who He was. So the thing is that God is different, his kingdom works differently than the way people expect. He doesn't fit into the box that people try to put him in regards to religion. We cannot sacrifice anything to make a difference. The concept of a God sacrificing himself to be connected with people is kind of mindblowing in terms of comparision with impersonal gods. Repentence isn't doing anything other than living more how we should based on the understanding that we have come to of God's mercy in our lives.
hopefully that makes sense.
The focus of the talk was about how people throughout history tend to deal with pleasing uncontrollable forces around them (weather, life, death,...). I think most religions would fall into some sort of category of this sort. Having rituals aimed for some purpose such as forgiveness, self edification or the like. And also from the beginning of the Hebrew people in the bible, this is how God has been contrasting with this image. People innately feel this kind of guilt or shame that drives them to have to do something. Religion really pulls that guilt out internally in people. I think that's why when people come to church they instantly feel judged without any sort of reasonable reason to. Yes of course some churches may be on the uber judgemental side, but that problem is magnified by our internal thought process. But from the beginning, God has been saying that He works differently from that. People had always done sacrifices in order to please whatever forces they were unable to control, but even in the Levitical code the sacrifices were intended for celebration. Psalm 50 says, "If I were hungry I would not tell you, for the world is mine, and all that is in it," and in Hebrews 10:11 says, "again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins." (yes it looks like those verses are pulled out of nowhere, but I think you will see their context fits fine in speaking of these things) The interesting thing about this is that we cannot sacrifice anything in that way to God in order for sins to be forgiven. That begs the question of why did God want the Isrealites to do the sacrifices if they didn't really do anything. The other question is why does God ask Abraham to sacrifice Isaac. I think that is because Abraham would expect a god to ask something like that during the time. In the modern day, the whole thing sounds preposterous, but within the context of the time, it's easier to understand why Abraham did not complain. And God did show that he was different when Abraham was right on the edge of sacrificing his own son--I think He really did want Abraham to comprehend well who He was. So the thing is that God is different, his kingdom works differently than the way people expect. He doesn't fit into the box that people try to put him in regards to religion. We cannot sacrifice anything to make a difference. The concept of a God sacrificing himself to be connected with people is kind of mindblowing in terms of comparision with impersonal gods. Repentence isn't doing anything other than living more how we should based on the understanding that we have come to of God's mercy in our lives.
hopefully that makes sense.
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
Bad times along with the good
So I just got word that one of my American female friends in Xinjiang got robbed yesterday. I'm not aware of the details at all, but I would venture it would be some kind of physical assault, but I imagine she is pretty shaken up. Please join me in praying for her. I think she's had a rough time so far, and this won't make it any easier for her. It saddens me to hear this, and I hope that she can recover and return to a life with hope and not constant fear and distrust of those around her. May the Lord strengthen her and give her the support she needs.
In happier news, I had a few friends over for dinner on Saturday. I made some kind of fancy stuffed italian pasta that looked like ghosts with sausage and cheese, boiled cabbage and ponzu. We had chocolate lava cakes for dessert, which were good, but more expensive than worthwhile in my opinion. But just hanging out with Zarina, Alexandra and Sawako was a huge blessing. We got to talk for about 4 hours and just relax. Having people over to my apartment was good; it didn't feel so lonely as usual. Earlier on Saturday, I had bubble tea with Zarina, and I asked her advice for some things that have been going on with me lately. She's got a definite grip on maturity, and I truly respect her a lot.
My parents came out yesterday. We hung out a little bit. Went to the bookstore where I bought Monty Python and the Quest for the Holy Grail (special edition) for about $5 with my coupon, and some chinese novel (in traditional characters) for $3. I know I can't read about any of it, but I will try to make it through a couple sentences. After the bookstore, we went and had dinner at the Mediterranean Cafe here in town. I love that place. I think it's a Lebaneese store, and I haven't really spoken with the owner much, but he is helpful to recommend things to buy (it is also a grocery of sorts). But the food is delicious. It was really a blessing to be around my parents because this semester hasn't provided much time to go home. I am really glad that they came out. We are going to Florida for Thanksgiving to hang out with Jessica. We'll have fun. I am excited.
So, language check.
Chinese: Since our class schedule was back to normal this week, I got the characters well memorized Sunday night rather than trying to do it at work on Monday. That is an immense help. I've made it through the first several chapters of Cracking the Chinese Puzzles, and added the vocab into my flashcard program today. Now I know words that are crazy useful, like 色溫 (se4wen1) meaning `color temperature' as in photography. It's kind of funny the things that stick in your mind. I want to set a more specific goal for Chinese. This goes in conjunction with my Japanese goals, but I would like to have learned 1000 Chinese characters by the start of classes this January.
Uyghur: Well, I got my midterm turned in. That helps my overall stress level. My goal with uyghur now, rather than memorizing words per day, is to review sentences I have read. I talked with my teacher about this, and she is providing me with sentences that use new vocabulary words in context (so far 2.5 pages of sentences!). But I'm not organized to be actually going through them yet. The main problem is that I was wanting to do this in the arabic script but my flashcard software does not allow for this. So I have to go for the latin script. I just need to bite my tongue and do it. once I get into a pattern daily, it will be better.
On an unrelated note, I was bored the other day and started gathering uyghur texts online to see what the most common words in Uyghur are. My two sources are RFA and biliwal, so the content is a little skewed, but oh well. Both the programs that I was using now are not working because today I decided to upgrade my computer to Leopard, which is sweet (aside from making only those two programs not work). But it looks like the most common words are along the lines of 've' - and; 'bilen' - with; 'bu' - this. I will try to get some actual counts up sometime this week, once I have a working solution--instead of my memory.
Japanese: Got a new plan here aside from the Kanji learning--because I'm not really learning any japanese. I purchased the Assimil Japanese with Ease Vol 1 from buy.com this week. I have heard a lot about the Assimil method and I want to give it a test to see how well it works. If I can spent about 15 minutes a day on it, I should be okay. Once I receive it in the mail, I will be able to understand exactly how it works. I would like to make it through it in the next 3 months if possible. I don't know if it is, but I can try, if I don't overwork myself.
Please remember my friend Amy in Xinjiang as she is healing from the robbing.
In happier news, I had a few friends over for dinner on Saturday. I made some kind of fancy stuffed italian pasta that looked like ghosts with sausage and cheese, boiled cabbage and ponzu. We had chocolate lava cakes for dessert, which were good, but more expensive than worthwhile in my opinion. But just hanging out with Zarina, Alexandra and Sawako was a huge blessing. We got to talk for about 4 hours and just relax. Having people over to my apartment was good; it didn't feel so lonely as usual. Earlier on Saturday, I had bubble tea with Zarina, and I asked her advice for some things that have been going on with me lately. She's got a definite grip on maturity, and I truly respect her a lot.
My parents came out yesterday. We hung out a little bit. Went to the bookstore where I bought Monty Python and the Quest for the Holy Grail (special edition) for about $5 with my coupon, and some chinese novel (in traditional characters) for $3. I know I can't read about any of it, but I will try to make it through a couple sentences. After the bookstore, we went and had dinner at the Mediterranean Cafe here in town. I love that place. I think it's a Lebaneese store, and I haven't really spoken with the owner much, but he is helpful to recommend things to buy (it is also a grocery of sorts). But the food is delicious. It was really a blessing to be around my parents because this semester hasn't provided much time to go home. I am really glad that they came out. We are going to Florida for Thanksgiving to hang out with Jessica. We'll have fun. I am excited.
So, language check.
Chinese: Since our class schedule was back to normal this week, I got the characters well memorized Sunday night rather than trying to do it at work on Monday. That is an immense help. I've made it through the first several chapters of Cracking the Chinese Puzzles, and added the vocab into my flashcard program today. Now I know words that are crazy useful, like 色溫 (se4wen1) meaning `color temperature' as in photography. It's kind of funny the things that stick in your mind. I want to set a more specific goal for Chinese. This goes in conjunction with my Japanese goals, but I would like to have learned 1000 Chinese characters by the start of classes this January.
Uyghur: Well, I got my midterm turned in. That helps my overall stress level. My goal with uyghur now, rather than memorizing words per day, is to review sentences I have read. I talked with my teacher about this, and she is providing me with sentences that use new vocabulary words in context (so far 2.5 pages of sentences!). But I'm not organized to be actually going through them yet. The main problem is that I was wanting to do this in the arabic script but my flashcard software does not allow for this. So I have to go for the latin script. I just need to bite my tongue and do it. once I get into a pattern daily, it will be better.
On an unrelated note, I was bored the other day and started gathering uyghur texts online to see what the most common words in Uyghur are. My two sources are RFA and biliwal, so the content is a little skewed, but oh well. Both the programs that I was using now are not working because today I decided to upgrade my computer to Leopard, which is sweet (aside from making only those two programs not work). But it looks like the most common words are along the lines of 've' - and; 'bilen' - with; 'bu' - this. I will try to get some actual counts up sometime this week, once I have a working solution--instead of my memory.
Japanese: Got a new plan here aside from the Kanji learning--because I'm not really learning any japanese. I purchased the Assimil Japanese with Ease Vol 1 from buy.com this week. I have heard a lot about the Assimil method and I want to give it a test to see how well it works. If I can spent about 15 minutes a day on it, I should be okay. Once I receive it in the mail, I will be able to understand exactly how it works. I would like to make it through it in the next 3 months if possible. I don't know if it is, but I can try, if I don't overwork myself.
Please remember my friend Amy in Xinjiang as she is healing from the robbing.
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