I even got to ride my lang. tutor's 4-Wheeler for a bit. Sweet!

The exam went well today also.  Spent nearly the entire time just talking about the little victories I have had lately in using my Thai and getting things fixed or done.  It’s nice to once again… finally …feel useful.

Coming from the States I felt useful.  I was involved in a lot of things, I was effective at what I did, had a lot of things on my plate (as is my personality).  So, coming to Thailand has been a bit rough in some ways.  Without a good amount of Thai, I felt useless.  I couldn’t tell the mechanic that I needed my motorbike tire changed without both getting a headache and handing them out to everyone I was trying to talk to.  If something needed done at our home, I didn’t know how to give directions to our home and describe what the issue was over the phone. Early on, I couldn’t even describe how short or long I wanted my hair cut when going for a trim on the ole’ Fohawk.  But, finally, I am able to do all of these things… and once again feel a bit useful here.  I bought the parts needed and replaced a sink drain in our bathroom yesterday afternoon, I’ve helped move air-conditioning units at a local church, I’ve taken our washing machine to get repaired, I’ve called for a professional to come and service our Air-con unit when it stopped working…  Oh, and I’ve ordered pizza over the phone and it was successfully (after them calling nearly 4 times because they were lost) delivered.

So, maybe, just maybe, we’ve turned a bit of a corner in our language learning and our lives here after 10 months.  And in good time.  We’re looking to buy a vehicle soon, next weekend we will be traveling to look for housing in Bangkok for when we move next month, and the following week we will sit before the church board in Bangkok to finalize details of us partnering with them to plant a church in the coming years.

Thanks for all your recent prayers and encouragement.  Maybe we’ll be able to do this missionary thing after all…

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It started off well. I responded to the teacher’s question by starting down a path talking about some things we did back home in ministry there and how people are people and how we should be more concerned about the people coming in the front door of the church than the Christians leaving out the back door all ticked off about something. The problem is that I was thinking perfectly in English and knew what I wanted to say, but I couldn’t get it out in Thai. I just couldn’t get it out. I was missing words in Thai in my story that were really integral to the telling of my story…. And it sounded awful. It was a train wreck where every time I attempted to say it in a different way, I just kept digging my hole deeper, more trains would come join the wreck.

Eventually we moved on and I was able to scrap together a decent enough Round #2 to salvage the language exam. But it did get me thinking. It’s often easy to get tripped up on words in our own language. You know, like you just can’t think of the word to best use in your situation. Usually you can easily add in a substitute word that will suffice and everyone will move on in conversation. But, in Thai, we don’t have those words yet. The substitute words. And while the Thai person stares at me trying to stumble across the word needed to actually start making sense, I’m running around the in the forest of my mind lost as ever.  And every attempt at fixing the train wreck of a conversation on the outside of my head gets me more and more lost in the forest of my mind.

Ah…  The joys of language learning…

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(RSS readers click through to the website to watch the video)

I’ve seen videos of the possession that can come from these tattoos, the chants the Buddhist monks give during the process and the willing people lined up to receive these tattoos.

Thailand can be such a dark place.  Please pray!

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I can’t give you much, but I can give you 20 seconds from our worship service this morning captured on my iPhone…

How was your Sunday?

Today we are going to look at the Thai way of greeting each other called the “Wai” ( ไหว้ ).

A traditional Thai greeting

The wai is the Thai greeting and show of respect, indicated by pressing your palms together near your chest and bowing. Why wai? As a foreigner, you will show and receive respect by following this customary greeting, although many Thais will also (somewhat reluctantly) accept a handshake from you.

The wai is a unique, graceful action practiced throughout Thailand. It plays a very important part in showing respect and is central to Thai etiquette. For the most part Thais do not want to touch your sweaty, grubby little hands, so it’s a good idea to learn how to wai.  The wai can be very confusing, especially at large gatherings when you feel like you have been waiing, bowing and smiling a hundred times. However, the plus side is, when being wai-ed to by others you do start to feel quite important!

When being wai-ed to, you would be considered impolite if you didn’t return or at least acknowledge the wai – something especially difficult to do when you are carrying a lot of bags or in the middle of stuffing your face when someone sneaks up on you. At the very least, you can grunt and nod. Only monks and royalty do not need to return a wai.

As well as being a greeting, a wai is a show of respect. It can be difficult to determine when you should wai or when someone should wai you. As a foreigner, it’s just easiest to wai important people as soon as possible. If someone is going to wai you first, they probably already beat you to it.

However, if you really want to know when to wai, this depends on your relationship to the other person. The person of higher social status will be wai-ed to. You have only a few seconds to size up someone you meet and determine this, but it’s best to err on the side of waiing first if you are unsure.

Even Ronald McDonald knows how to greet politely!

One easy determination is age. If someone is older than you, then you should wai them unless they are someone whom you employ, such as a housekeeper. Additionally, you should never wai to anyone who you are paying for service, such as waiters, tailors, vendors, shopkeepers or taxi drivers. You also wouldn’t wai your peers and friends. Alternatively, when leaving a party or other such gathering, you should wai everyone, as this is the polite way to excuse yourself from the festivities.

You will also wai when receiving a gift from a superior, as a sign of thanks. Make your wai before you reach to take the object. While listening to a Buddhist sermon, it is also customary to hold a wai during the entire programme. You may even notice that as drivers of vehicles pass a sacred monument, they will wai – even taking their hands off the wheel!

If all that wasn’t confusing enough, there are different kinds of wais! The normal wai is with your hands pressed together at about chest level, presenting a slight bow with your body. The wai to a superior is with the tips of your fingers at nose level, still bowing your body. To convey the most respect and gratitude, you will wai with your fingertips at mouth level and present a deeper and longer bow.

So, what are your thoughts on the Thai way of saying “Yo, man, what’s crackin’?” with a huge chest bump?

Earlier this week we read the story of Zacchaeus as it would be told in a Children’s Bible.  I’d thought I’d share that story with you!

Luke 19:1-10 - Thai Contemporary Bible

The Story of Zacchaeus Spoken in Thai
Click link to play Audio

This isn’t an exact translation of the passage above, but it should give you a good idea of what we have been doing and what we are continuing to work through.  Who knew learning a new language could be so fun/difficult!

Have you ever learned another language fluently?

Brook and Sara sing Thai from Michael Brook Sarver on Vimeo.

After two months of language study in Lopburi, Thailand. Sara and I have finally learned enough Thai to sing a song together.

This was for a special session in which all students come together to learn about Thai culture, beliefs, and customs…

You can’t imagine how difficult it is to play, sing, and read all in a split second when you aren’t all that familiar with the language!

Follow up at:

http://www.unglamorouslove.com

or

HERE

Thai Consonants ... Still another 20 some vowel sounds to add!

Sara and I had our language checks on Tuesday morning and with that finished up the first three modules of our study of the Thai language.  Up until this point everything has been spelled in western phonetics so that we are able to learn to speak.  Well, upon completing those modules we have now moved onto reading and writing, and let me tell you, it is ROUGH!

The Thai language has 44 consonants and over 20 different vowel sounds and 4 tones markers (that mean different things depending on the class of the consonants they are used with).  Needless to say, our brains have been exploding with trying to wrap them around this new challenge…

While it’s possibly been one of the hardest things we have ever had to learn (besides learning how to be a good husband), it’s also been one of the most rewarding… even after only a week.  I wish you could have seen our faces the first time we read a word on our own!

We feel all excited likes kids but all tired like grown adults trying to learn to read…

Wanna learn a bit of Thai yourself?  Check out www.learningthai.com… it’s a great online resource!  Also, you can read more details on the Thai script and alphabet on it’s Wikipedia page!

What’s the hardest thing you’ve had to learn to do lately?

I’ll translate for you what happened next:

Me: “Excuse me, the ATM machine seems to be broken and won’t give back my card.”

Banker: “One of our ATM machines?”

Me: “Yep.  The first one outside.  It ate my card.  Why would an ATM machine eat my card?  Did it not eat lunch?”  Lame joke, I know.  But I was trying!  At least they found it funny.

Banker: “Hahaha! I’m not sure if ATM machines have to eat.”

The nice banker finally goes to check the ATM and sure enough, there’s my ATM card.  But before giving it to me she needs to copy my driver’s license (because my Passport wasn’t with me).  So I sit down and wait for her to do what she needs to do.

Banker: “You look fatter in this picture on your ID card!”

Me: “I know!  It’s because Thailand is so hot all the time!  I sweat constantly!  That and all foreigners look fat compared to Thai people!  Here, have another lame joke.  But it worked…  The crowd goes wild!

Bankers: “Hahaha!  So, your name is Michael…like Michael Jackson?”

Me: “Yep, that’s me.  We’re both white!”  The lame jokes continue to pour out of me but I’d be lying if I wasn’t a bit (or a lot) proud of the conversation thus far…  all in Thai!

Bankers: “So, do you have a Thai girlfriend yet?”

Me: “Nope.  I have a foreign wife already…  One woman in my life is enough.  I can’t understand why a lot of men want more than one to deal with!”  Mildly condescending, I realize, but they thought this was hilarious!  Another point for me!

Bankers: “So I see your account isn’t with this bank.  Would you like to open an account today?”

Me: “No.  I haven’t eaten in days because I don’t have any money.”  A complete lie, but luckily they took it as the joke I meant it to be…

Bankers: “So how long will you be staying in Thailand?  Are you here on vacation?”

Me: “Nope.  I’m not here on vacation.  We’re here studying Thai but we plan on staying in Thailand for, who knows, maybe 5, 10, 20 years!  I like Thailand so much I’d love to live here until I’m GAY !!!!

Yep, that’s right.  After how proud I was to have such a long conversation entirely in Thai, tell a few jokes, and turn a headache into a good time I manage to pull something like this off.

The Thai word for old is VERY similar to the word for gay.  It takes quite a bit to embarrass me but this sure came close.  I just told an entire office of Thai bankers that I want to stay in Thailand until I’m gay!

This brings me to some closing thoughts.  In these situations you have to be able to laugh at yourself.  It’s not the first time I’ve made a fool of myself and surely won’t be the last.  I thank God for his grace as we fumble through learning a new language.  I thank Him for the good laughs in the afternoon and for supporters back home who, despite knowing I’m telling Thai people I want to be gay, will continue to support us and possibly even pray for us all the more!

You guys are the best!

Our fellow Thai newbies!

We’ve been here for two months, experienced A LOT, and are continuing to get settled in.  A lot has gone on, and thus, it is hard to know where to start.

First thing once we got started was to move to Lopburi, the provincial capital of Lopburi province about an hour and a half north of Bangkok.  This is where OMF has their language school that new missionaries attend for up to a year of language study.  Because there are currently so many new missionaries studying Thai at the LLC (Language Learning Center), Sara and I were unable to move into an actual home once we arrived.  So, seeing as we have no children (yet) and are young (still), we moved into a one-room youth hostel.  It was quite stretching to start with.  I’d be lying if I said that tears didn’t flow from my wife’s eyes at times due to the circumstances (lack of kitchen, lack of another room, and lack of internet or even a computer desk to study at).

But even through that God was gracious.  I was able to build friendships with the Thai people working at the hostel and honestly it made moving into our current home all the more sweet!  Now, Sara has a kitchen, we have more than one room, two desks to study at and even internet to once again begin blogging and sharing our hearts with you as God grows our passion for the Thai people.

Aside from physical stresses, we’ve also experienced quite a bit of emotional and mental stress.  Attempting to get back into the swing of being a full-time student was harder than we had thought.  But even through this the Lord’s grace was there and we are (Praise the Lord!) able to remember much of what we studying almost 4 years ago when we lived in Thailand the first time.

This is just a short, sweet update as it’s been way too long.  Thanks for checking in and we look forward to sharing with you more often now that we are getting settled in!  Now off to sweat in our living room as it is currently 90 degrees Fahrenheit and Sara is off baking brownies for Fellowship Group tomorrow…  yeah, she loves finally having a kitchen…