No More Jokes!

I thought of what I wanted to talk about, cause it happened again today. So basically I've been meeting a lot of people from Asia (Koreans, Japanese, Thai, Indonesians, etc) and they all ask me where I am from. Then I say "Canada", because well I am from Canada. Then they look at me weird. So it happened today when I met two girls, one from Korea and one from Japan. So they looked at me weird, and so I go, "Don't I look Canadian" hahah. Of course i don't! I'm Chinese! Thing is, their question is "Where am I from?". There is no way I can answer that question "Hong Kong" or "China", because before last fall I had never been to both. So of course I am Canadian. So I explained to the girls why I had no choice but to say Canadian. Their english is not that great, so I was explaining to them the difference between the questions "Where are you from?" and "What is your background?" Because if they asked the second question I could answer "Chinese", and it'd make more sense to them. FOr some reason it doesn't make sense to them that a Chinese person can be from Canada. then one of the girls was like, so you have two nationalities? I guess so, I guess it depends what "Nationality" means. Anyways, I do consider myself I Chinese Canadian, so I guess I do have two. She found that really interesting. But then I explained to her, well if I was mixed, then I'd have two background as well (kind of).

Last week I was eating with a bunch of korean students, learning english in Australia. One of the pastors came later, and was talking and meeting some of whom he never met. I had never met him so he came to me, and I was thinking to myself, I should put on some Asian accent to see if I can fool him. everyone else has an Asian accent and can't speak english, he may be taken aback from someone who can speak english (well kind of, mine ain't that great either). But I didn't, but I told him my plan, he found it quite funny. Good times!

I'm finding it a small challenge talking to english students, but it's a good thing. It gives me patience, and helps me speak more clearly, simply, and not talk with jokes. I talked with the Japanese girl after service today and she was telling me she found it hard to understand the pastor today. The Pastor who spoke today is the "Sr. Pastor", but he was in Hawaii last couple of weeks, so she's never heard him speak. She told me he spoke so fast, and with many jokes that she does not understand. So i told her that was really good feedback and I think the pastor really needs to hear that. Because there are a lot of foreign exchange students from different countries, and the pastor should really understand that when he gives his sermons. Make things clear and simple. It's a part of cross-cultural ministries, and very important. You can't reach the unreached if they don't understand you. I think I will mention it to the pastor when I get a chance, because he really needs to hear it. He probably doesn't even realize, so he needs to know. The other pastor, who spoke last few weeks. she found him better. It's probably because he works with the students during the week, so he understands it more. Just some good honest feedback.