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John - Middle East Updates

Class of 2015
Arabic Language Study in Middle East
Track: Languages - Linguistics track
Region: Middle East
Hello everyone! Thanks for taking the time to check out my blog. My hope is that God speaks to you through what I have to say, and that you are able to get a real sense of what my life is like in the Middle East and what God is doing there.

Along with traveling and languages, my interests include sports (like soccer and Ultimate Frisbee) and reading (poetry and prose, both). I'm super excited for the chance to use my interests to connect with the people I'll come to meet. An interest in soccer comes in handy anywhere I go, as it IS the world's favorite sport, after all. Poetry and the beauty of Arabic are extremely dear to the hearts of many people in the Middle East, and so I hope to connect with people through that, as well!

I'm really looking forward to see the things God brings about in the next two years. Thanks again for reading and praying, and I hope my posts are interesting and edifying for you!

الإنجليزية الأمريكية (American English)

By on Track: Languages - Linguistics Region: Middle East

One of the things I find interesting about living abroad and learning a new language is the way my relationship with my native tongue has changed. Working in an environment like this, you come across people from all over who may be less than used to speaking English, and I find myself learning patience when people take a bit longer to express themselves, or learning to guess meanings when what they intend to say is unclear. Doing so helps me grow and try to be a better listener. When I speak, too, I have to be careful about how fast I speak or how my accent is coming across, and it forces me… Read more >>

True Enough?

By on Track: Languages - Linguistics Region: Middle East

Living in a different culture is an interesting thing. As I stretch and adjust to my surroundings, I am forced to examine the way I do things and ask if what I do is because of my personality or inherited from my culture, something that glorifies God or just something I do without much thought. Such introspection engenders growth, but not without a fair share of discomfort. For instance, truth-telling where I live is viewed quite differently from where I come from. People swear to God all the time, even responding to something amazing you say by saying, “swear to God?” The funny thing is,… Read more >>

Ordinary

By on Track: Languages - Linguistics Region: Middle East

One year in, and it is bizarre to think about the things that have become ordinary. Buildings in several shades of brown, ranging from once-glorious to yet-unfinished. Streets occupied by a donkey-driven cart, a tuk-tuk, a motorcycle, a microbus that looks weeks, days, hours from falling apart. Drinking coffee in bright plastic chairs in the street, watching soccer with strangers in a language that is inching towards familiarity. Answering the well-worn script of questions about why I'm here and how I've come to speak this language.  There are things I can see in myself that are more… Read more >>

A Change of Pace

By on Track: Languages - Linguistics Region: Middle East

So I am terrible at blogging consistently, but I finally have something that would be really easy to blog about! I just got back a couple days ago from a trip that was entirely different from my normal routine here. I went with a group of other workers to a refugee camp in a country south of mine to help with a trauma healing workshop, and it was an unforgettable experience! Everything in that country was so much more stereotypically "Africa" than I am used to! The dirt was red, there were termite mounds, there were kids in various states of (un)dress running up to say "Imfinethankyou" in… Read more >>

Commitment Issues

By on Track: Languages - Linguistics Region: Middle East

I'm a person who really enjoys languages. I like words, how they can be tweaked and shifted around to make something so beautiful as a poem or so silly as a pun. I like the challenge of figuring out a new language, seeing how the words relate to each other in ways different than I am used to. Since I started learning Spanish when I was fourteen, I've enjoyed dabbling in other languages, studying what I could here and there. I'm noticing that things are different now, though; language learning is my job here, and I'm seeing with Arabic that language-learning really is work. I have to… Read more >>

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