progress

Nope, not progress towards having Judah...a much different kind of progress. So we were on the airplane, Stan and I are across the isle from each other, he's sitting with Kirby at the window and I have Bennett in the middle section. Now most people flying on this particular Thai Airlines flight (the flight we usually take) are either Chinese or Thai. The airline attendants are mostly Thai with a few Chinese thrown in there. They all speak English and Thai and then at least a little Chinese. During drink service the Chinese couple sitting in front of Stan asked for juice. The attendant, who was Thai, was trying to ask if they would prefer orange or apple juice and midway through the sentence realized she didn't know the word for apple juice. She looked at her serving partner and asked 'What is the chinese word for apple juice?' Stan and I both automatically responded 'ping guo zhi'. The attendants looked at us both with a shocked smile and a small laugh and the one who had asked thanked us. Now this is nothing for Stan who has two years of language study more than I do, and not a HUGE thing for me, but I must say it felt great to have that come out as an automatic response, and be correct to top it off. I don't know who was more surprised, me or the attendants. It was almost as if they were surprised that these Americans even knew any Chinese.

So this has totally encouraged me to do the actual studying that I have made plans to do while here in Thailand. I've brought books to review and a friend let me borrow her Rosetta Stone discs, which will give me the opportunity to hear it spoken--so important not to loose those listening skills. At this point in my studying two months away could really set me back, especially since my last couple of months in country were limited as far as all activity and I had to cut my tutoring down by half. But just that little automatic response has me totally encouraged!

Now if I could just remember that the Thai people don't understand Chinese...I've been speaking my basics to them only to be given looks of confusion. Ooops!