Modesty

    Soon I'll start tutoring in English as a Second Language to some young Japanese women, mothers of young children whose husbands are working here.  A friend who lives in the same apartment complex has linked me to them. After taking a break from teaching ESL for four or five years, I'm looking forward to the joys of helping others in this way again.
    I introduced myself to these women through e-mail. Two of the three wrote back a substantial letter practically free of grammatical errors saying, "I speak very poor English." 
    Can you imagine going to France or Mexico and saying that?  If they had enough French or Spanish to say that s/he would probably think they were doing very well.
    It's cool in Japan to be modest.  They believe what Jesus talked about - better to rate yourself lowly and to be complimented and brought up in ranking by the host than to see and promote yourself as being cool or great.  We could do with more of that way of thinking here.
    As my friend who's been living in Central Asia for many years had dinner with us yesterday. He observed  about California, "Relationships here are about self-promotion. You have to put yourself forward all the time.  It's all about marketing."
    I love it when I find someone who genuine wants to know me rather than promote themselves.

Comments

[Tatiana]

It's soo wonderful to connect with others that agree on the words and ways of honesty and integrity. I also prefer all of the good manners with the honorable ways.
God Bless you.
Tatiana