Working Hard(ly)

An interesting research article was brought to my attention last week in my graduate Theory and Research of English as a Second Language. It was called "Evangelical Christians and English Language Teaching: A Qualitative Study" by Bill Johnston.

To be honest, I was initially offended that the student would bring up this topic, though the elephant in the room was exposed. Many people study TESOL (Teaching English to Speaking of Other Languages) as a means to get into a country that is closed. However, one of the main topics that students discussed during this lecture was that it is okay for Christians to work as ESL/EFL teachers in foreign countries, however they have a problem with the Christian teachers not focusing heavily on their job and more on their agenda. Furthermore, there are many Christian teachers who do not have qualifications to go and do an "unsatisfactory" job. This was difficult for me to hear and not speak up against. However, I felt like my mouth was shut up for a time and I really tried to listen and understand what their points were.

Here are some of the points discussed in class:

• Teachers always have an agenda no matter what they believe
• Christian teachers should not be exempt from doing a good job
• Atheists might be less offended if the agenda was non-religious, though Christian teachers can be very good teachers.
  
• Not having proper training does a disservice to the learners.

What do you think about this? I really started becoming ashamed, shouldn't we work hard no matter what? Many people who I respect and love have gone to do this very thing, teach EFL. I was not there, maybe they did do a great job.

My conclusion:

• Work hard as if for the Lord, don't give a second-rate product and then proclaim your faith. Give your boss a reason to be proud that he hired you, an ambassador of Christ.
  

From the perspective of Love

Without love, God would not have provided a sacrifice for our sin. Without love, we cannot receive this gift. Love is the beginning of all that is valuable. God is love and it's altogether good and anti-worldly. It goes against the grain of all that is messed up in this World. It fights for the justice of those who have no power or voice to speak. It's pure.

"We love because He first loved us." 1 Jn 4:19

"Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth." 1 Jn 3:18

From the perspective of love, lip service is not enough. Anyone can lie and "give" their all to someone using words. I see it daily, just by talking with friends or reading the news. Lives have been ensnared because of the false advertisement of love. Words are wonderful when genuine, but they echo more strongly when actions follow through.

Implications for life:

• If you love someone don't just say it, give them help when they need it most.
• Help someone even when they don't ask, don't advertise your service. This is for their benefit, not mine.
• Give, give up, give away... whatever they need you to do.
  
• Lent is a great time to reflect on how we normally use our money on the things that are given up. Perhaps your soda, chocolate, movie ticket, etc. that you gave up could be given as a gift to someone else.

The rule for all of us is perfectly simple. Do not waste time bothering whether you 'love' your neighbour; act as if you did. As soon as we do this we find one of the great secrets. When you are behaving as if you loved someone, you will presently come to love him.

—Mere Christianity

The Death of Language

Language is always changing and language is always dying. I heard the other day that over 5,000 languages were dying daily, that is such a large number, I decided to investigate that in this post. If language=culture, like most of my professors repeat habitually to their students, then cultures are dying more rapidly than "endangered animals." Now, I am really hoping that animal rights activists don't get hung up on that one minor point that I make, but I must say that humans, in my opinion, are MUCH more valuable than animals.

According to the UNESCO Language Map, there are 75 languages in the North American region that are critically endangered of becoming extinct. However, we know that many of the reasons in the United States is because English has gained dominance. There are other places in the World, where languages die due to the one 90 year-old woman in the village getting sick and dying.

Here's a story of an Indian woman in Alaska who died. This article claims that the status of English as a global language is driving others to speak their first language (L1) less and less. The 2nd Language (L2) is conquering the languages, making this an unstable time for smaller cultures to hold onto their L1.

There are somewhere between 3,000 and 10,000 languages alive in the World, so the number of 5,000 languages dying per day cannot be true. I believe that 2-3 per month die, which sounds much more reasonable.

Aside from the figures, how does that affect the masterplan of the World. It seems that extinction of languages is relatively normal, we all know about Latin as an extinct language. Everyone seems so surprised that this language has died, though reasons stem from ethnocentrism, I believe. Latin has deep roots with the Catholic church, which is a portion of American culture, whether we want to directly believe it or not.

Back to the Master Plan. If we look at other scientific items, such as evolution, we see scientists scurrying to find the answers to how existence came to be. Linguists sometimes search for similar answers, "How is language born?" Answers have not yet been found, only theories. I see a commonality between the two scholarly sectors, searching for answers that may not be found except through a look through the lens of a Holy God.

Languages are dying. People are dying. I see much more hype about the latest endangered animal, than the endangered person. Those who have my perspective, know what I'm talking about. The heart is the issue at stake, how is every tribe tongue and nation getting to the destination with me just sitting around on my couch typing this post?