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Friday, July 30, 2010

Many Tribes, Many Tongues

Last night, I dreamt that I failed a Chinese oral exam. I had not been dreaming about exams for a long, long time. Even after leaving school, I used to have recurring nightmares about failing Math exams. The nightmare was usually the same - going to the exam hall and not able to do the Math exam paper at all because I had not attended Math classes the whole year. It was a strange, traumatic experience in dreamland, filled with anguish and agony over calculus and differentiation. It was strange because it was contrary to my typical kiasu Singaporean nature, not like the real me who's always mugging up and faithfully doing my ten-year series.

Some people say dreams in our sleep reflect our thoughts in the day. I suppose my nightmares about Math exams are the vestiges of the stresses I went through during my school days. Might the exam stresses be so deeply ingrained that my nightmares occur long after I left school? It goes to show the long-lasting "damage" that the exam-oriented school system inflicted on my mental well-being even today?

But why the dream about failing oral Chinese exam last night? For the past one over year, I've been trying to brush up my Chinese-speaking ability, relearning hanyu pinyin (which I learnt as a working adult in a one-to-one course conducted by my sis's friend) and reading primary-school-level Chinese books which I bought from Shanghai two years ago. Sadly, my progress has been painfully slow, mainly because of distractions from other activities and not enough time spent on real study. My aspiration to become effectively bilingual still has a long way to go.

If only we have only one language for all peoples, life would be simpler and perhaps richer since we can devote more time to learning and enjoying the fine things of life instead of grappling with a 2nd or even 3rd language. After the earth was first created, the whole world indeed had one language and a common speech (Gen 3:1). But pride caused this idyllic state to be changed.

In the days after the big flood, Scripture tells of men building a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that they may make a name for themselves. God saw the tower of Babel that the men were building and He said, "If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan will be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other." (Gen 3:3-9) And here we have the genesis of the multiple languages in the world today - men's pride and ambition to build a monument to their own greatness, for themselves rather than to God.

Will my aspiration to build up my Chinese-speaking ability become my "tower of Babel"? Admittedly, I'm most envious of Singaporean friends who speak well in Chinese. Speaking as well as them will increase my sense of self-worth and significance. But I need to guard against pride in any human achievement. The story of the tower of Babel is a good reminder.

Thursday, July 22, 2010

We Are Family

Wow, S$6m left to the maid - a 47-year-old Filipina, who served her employer faithfully for more than two decades since 1986 and whom the late employer treated "like a daughter". My immediate thought was: how many people would treat their maids as part of the family to the extent of leaving them a huge inheritance, especially in an Asian context where blood is thicker than water and where paternal blood-ties often matter much more than maternal blood-ties? We are the "inner" grandchildren or nieces/nephews when we carry the same surname but "outer" grandchildren or nieces/nephews on the maternal side, and being the "inner" grandchildren or nieces/nephews, we enjoy privileges and favouritism.

I employed a maid for about three years some time ago, initially to take care of my bedridden mother and after my mom passed away, to cook and do the household chores. What struck me during my pre-employment interview of my maid was a statement that she wrote in her application form - that she hoped her employer would treat her as part of the family. And so, I had sought to treat her well, being reminded of what the Bible says when Moses gave God's commandments to the Israelites:

"Do not mistreat an alien or oppress him, for you were aliens in Egypt." (Exodus 22:21)

At the root of all relationships (including our relationship with our maids) is love and mercy. Jesus often taught this. In the story of the good Samaritan, a Jew was robbed and injured while out travelling. A priest saw the injured man but he passed by on the other side of the road. Then a Levite (member of the Israelite tribe chosen by God to serve in His temple and assist the priests) came by and saw the injured man, but he too passed by on the other side. Next came a Samaritan who took pity on the injured man, bound up his wounds and placed him under the care of an innkeeper. So who is a neighbour to the man who was robbed and injured? "The one who had mercy on him." (Luke 10:29-37)

The action of the good Samaritan was unusual as a deep hatred existed between Jews and Samaritans. The Jews saw themselves as pure descendants of Abraham, while the Samaritans were a mixed race produced when Jews intermarried with other peoples. The Life Application Study Bible says:

Only the Samaritan treated him (the injured man) as a person to love. From the parable we learn three principles about loving our neighbour: (1) lack of love is often easy to justify, even though it is never right; (2) our neighbour is anyone of any race, creed or social background who is in need; (3) love means acting to meet the person's need.

Whether we are Christians or not, we need to remember that our maids are humans too, with their personal needs and failings that we should give allowance for. We grumble and murmur when we feel over-worked and unpaid by our bosses; but when it comes to our maids, are we making them work day and night to get our "money's worth"? Do we have one set of values for ourselves and another set for our maids? Scripture says:

"Do to others as you would have them do to you..... Be merciful, just as your father is merciful." (Luke 6:31, 36)