Monday, February 9, 2009

Yada Yada Yada

Today was a Buddhist holiday, so all but one of my students opted to skip class today. I took the opportunity to go run a few errands and practice my Khmer. On the way to one of the shops I was going to, I stumbled upon something amazing!


Who would have thought that Orlando Bloom and Matt Damon would come all the way to Phnom Penh for their $1 hair cuts? I mean, I always assumed people like that went to high-dollar salons. But the pictures on the front of Pop Style Barber Shop make it clear that I was sadly mistaken. So, if any of you out there have been trying and trying to achieve that perfect “movie star hair” to no avail, now you know why.


As I mentioned before, I did have one student come today. Ya is my 8am pupil. His real name is Chanmakara, but he prefers to be called Ya, and honestly, I prefer to call him that! Ya is a non-practicing Buddhist who is currently studying Physics at University. He is extremely bright and is constantly asking insightful questions to which I don’t always have an answer. (i.e. “Teacher, what is the exact moment when Jesus took the sins of humanity?”)

I picked up Ya as a student from a previous teacher, so I can’t take credit for his incredible understanding of both English and the Bible. But I am continuously amazed at how profoundly Ya has grasped difficult concepts. For example, today we reviewed for an exam he will have next time. I was quizzing him on the sequence of events for different stories in the Bible. When I asked him: “Which happened first? Did Jesus begin his ministry of healing and performing miracles? Or was he baptized by John the Baptist?” Ya replied: “He must have been baptized first. Because when he was baptized, the Holy Spirit descended on him like a dove and gave him the power to perform miracles.” While most of my students would have gotten the sequence of events right, few of them would have been able to explain why that logically must be the order in which things occurred. Needless to say, I make sure I’ve had my coffee before I come to class with him!

2 comments:

Steven said...

Sounds like a guy I could get along with!

Jeanette said...

You didn't know that about Orlando and Matt... wierd... I did ;)