"but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the LORD.” Jeremiah 9:24
I may have said this before, but I am saying it again because it is still tripping me up. Pride is a big issue for me- and it seems to creep up in many areas of my life. So I have a confession to make, I am not a Hindi expert (gasp). In fact, I think the term "novice" is being generous. I daily stumble about with making sure that my verbs take the correct gender and tenses, and that my pronouns inflect correctly when followed by a postposition. Yet even though I know that I don't know Hindi, I often find myself not having a very teachable attitude. It really doesn't matter that I have a Masters degree, have studied Mandarin, and taught ESL, and the language school definitely doesn't care what my GPA was. And it should not matter that my main teacher is 19 years old and admitted to us that she used to fail Hindi class. The truth of the matter is that she has something to teach me and she is an expert and I am not. Sure I may know a better way to teach, but I should give thanks that I am learning, that someone is available to teach me. I need to get rid of the high and mighty attititude and lurks in my subconscience and realize that I am not above being taught by someone without an MA in Hindi. We truly do value degrees so much- but it is just a piece of paper (and hours of class, reading, and writing papers).
I really thinking I am doing better about this than I was in the beginning, but pray for me that even in the times when my teacher is texting during class or goes off on some tangent that fully reveals her age, that I would have an attitude of love and a righteous heart.
I may have said this before, but I am saying it again because it is still tripping me up. Pride is a big issue for me- and it seems to creep up in many areas of my life. So I have a confession to make, I am not a Hindi expert (gasp). In fact, I think the term "novice" is being generous. I daily stumble about with making sure that my verbs take the correct gender and tenses, and that my pronouns inflect correctly when followed by a postposition. Yet even though I know that I don't know Hindi, I often find myself not having a very teachable attitude. It really doesn't matter that I have a Masters degree, have studied Mandarin, and taught ESL, and the language school definitely doesn't care what my GPA was. And it should not matter that my main teacher is 19 years old and admitted to us that she used to fail Hindi class. The truth of the matter is that she has something to teach me and she is an expert and I am not. Sure I may know a better way to teach, but I should give thanks that I am learning, that someone is available to teach me. I need to get rid of the high and mighty attititude and lurks in my subconscience and realize that I am not above being taught by someone without an MA in Hindi. We truly do value degrees so much- but it is just a piece of paper (and hours of class, reading, and writing papers).
I really thinking I am doing better about this than I was in the beginning, but pray for me that even in the times when my teacher is texting during class or goes off on some tangent that fully reveals her age, that I would have an attitude of love and a righteous heart.
1 comment:
I suspect pride is assigned its high place in the legion of vices because it is so pervasive. In other words, you are not alone.
We have remembered you and JP in your language study and will add this facet of the task to our remembrance.
Saw a short video of Silas in a car. What, no car seats in your locale?
Allan
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