Khawjai!

Khawjai means to understand in Thai.
Every spare moment I have is spent studying the Thai language. Four days a week, three hours a day with a teacher at home plus independent study and practice with Thai people. Thai is a challenging language, especially for someone that has spoken a western language their entire lives. They have sounds that we don't even have in english and tones that change the meanings of a given word. Not only is it hard to learn and remember all the things we are learning but understanding and being understood in a conversation with Thai people is challenging too. They talk really fast and once they hear you speak a small sentence they assume you have a fluent understanding of the language. And my American midwest accent doesn't help them understand me either.

The Face of confusion...
I have been discouraged because I'm not learning as fast as I want to and I'm not understanding or being understood in this language when I converse with locals. But today in class I was encouraged when I was able to understand our teacher giving us direction in Thai. I could pick up words I knew and get the idea of what she was saying to us. Also understanding people at the restaurant we went to for lunch was exciting. I was able to order, talk about the food and pay for my meal all in Thai. My trip to "seven" (as they call 7/11 here) for orange juce was encouraging too. The girl behind the counter asked me if I had eaten today which is a common greeting here, it's like asking "how are you?". I wasn't sure how to respond...but when I got home I asked my team mates and now I know for next time. Learning this language is going to take time and grace from the Lord to persevere. Pray for me and my team that the Lord would give us supernatural understanding to learn Thai so we can communicate His glory and love to them in their own language. Grace and peace to you from the Lord Jesus Christ!