Leveling Up (Rant on President's Day Weekend)
I love traveling. Brigham Young University's class scheduling is not very conducive to my love.
This winter semester of 2018, there are two holidays. Presidents' Day Weekend and a single day for Spring Break.
Three days bestowed to me for Presidents' Day Weekend are enough to go anywhere. My spirit and flesh were willing.
But I stayed in town instead. I maximized my time to study and do homework. I didn't sleep in. By Monday night, I felt accomplished because of all the school work I had done.
Come Tuesday, and I get a less than perfect score on my Japanese midterm.
I cried as soon as I knew.
I wasn't crying over the less than perfect grade, but over the wasted travel opportunity. If all my hard work only added up to an average grade, the time I spent at home studying was a waste. I should have gone out of town this weekend, enjoyed myself, and I likely would have ended up with the same grade.
Why am I studying Japanese? The department is small. The further I venture into my studies in Japanese, the smaller my classes get. Lots of returned LDS missionaries like me, who lived in Japan for up to two years, never study Japanese again. Why am I so set on continuing to learn this very difficult language?
"Preach My Gospel" is a guidebook for missionaries. There is a chapter on "Learn[ing] the Language." This chapter is not applicable to every LDS missionary there ever was, but for those missionaries called to serve people who speak a language foreign to the missionary. I read it time and time again throughout my eighteen months in Japan. Every one who has read it might be inspired by it in different ways.
When I read: "Strive to master the language throughout your mission and after you return. The Lord has invested much in you, and He may have uses for your language abilities later in your life. Elder Jeffrey R. Holland explained: “We would … hope that every missionary learning a new proselyting language would master it in every way possible. … And as you do so, your proselyting and testifying skills will improve. You will be better received by and more spiritually impressive to your investigators. … Don’t be satisfied with what we call a missionary vocabulary only. Stretch yourself in the language, and you will gain greater access to the hearts of the people” (missionary satellite broadcast, Aug. 1998)," I understood that I should continue to study my mission language throughout my university studies.
This can be a complicated goal for me because I used Japanese, Portuguese, and Spanish during my LDS mission to Tokyo, Japan. I've ordered these in the order of frequency that I spoke the language. Still, what is my mission language? No doubt "the Lord has invested much in" me and given me a gift with languages. I feel obligated to learn them all. Not just learn, but master, just like it says in "Preach My Gospel." Not every reader of this excerpt may get the same impression, but this is mine.
What is especially complex is that I do exceptionally well in my Portuguese classes, but stumble through my Japanese classes. Is my Portuguese better than my Japanese? Do I abandon one and devote myself completely to the other? For now, I have an iron grip on both of these studies.
My major at Brigham Young University is News Media. The building on campus dedicated to all communications students is called the Brimhall building, named after George H. Brimhall, who was once the president of the university. On a wall on the first floor that I walk past every day, there is a mural dedicated to many of his quotes. In this moment, my favorite one is this one:
This winter semester of 2018, there are two holidays. Presidents' Day Weekend and a single day for Spring Break.
Three days bestowed to me for Presidents' Day Weekend are enough to go anywhere. My spirit and flesh were willing.
But I stayed in town instead. I maximized my time to study and do homework. I didn't sleep in. By Monday night, I felt accomplished because of all the school work I had done.
Come Tuesday, and I get a less than perfect score on my Japanese midterm.
I cried as soon as I knew.
I wasn't crying over the less than perfect grade, but over the wasted travel opportunity. If all my hard work only added up to an average grade, the time I spent at home studying was a waste. I should have gone out of town this weekend, enjoyed myself, and I likely would have ended up with the same grade.
Why am I studying Japanese? The department is small. The further I venture into my studies in Japanese, the smaller my classes get. Lots of returned LDS missionaries like me, who lived in Japan for up to two years, never study Japanese again. Why am I so set on continuing to learn this very difficult language?
"Preach My Gospel" is a guidebook for missionaries. There is a chapter on "Learn[ing] the Language." This chapter is not applicable to every LDS missionary there ever was, but for those missionaries called to serve people who speak a language foreign to the missionary. I read it time and time again throughout my eighteen months in Japan. Every one who has read it might be inspired by it in different ways.
When I read: "Strive to master the language throughout your mission and after you return. The Lord has invested much in you, and He may have uses for your language abilities later in your life. Elder Jeffrey R. Holland explained: “We would … hope that every missionary learning a new proselyting language would master it in every way possible. … And as you do so, your proselyting and testifying skills will improve. You will be better received by and more spiritually impressive to your investigators. … Don’t be satisfied with what we call a missionary vocabulary only. Stretch yourself in the language, and you will gain greater access to the hearts of the people” (missionary satellite broadcast, Aug. 1998)," I understood that I should continue to study my mission language throughout my university studies.
This can be a complicated goal for me because I used Japanese, Portuguese, and Spanish during my LDS mission to Tokyo, Japan. I've ordered these in the order of frequency that I spoke the language. Still, what is my mission language? No doubt "the Lord has invested much in" me and given me a gift with languages. I feel obligated to learn them all. Not just learn, but master, just like it says in "Preach My Gospel." Not every reader of this excerpt may get the same impression, but this is mine.
What is especially complex is that I do exceptionally well in my Portuguese classes, but stumble through my Japanese classes. Is my Portuguese better than my Japanese? Do I abandon one and devote myself completely to the other? For now, I have an iron grip on both of these studies.
My major at Brigham Young University is News Media. The building on campus dedicated to all communications students is called the Brimhall building, named after George H. Brimhall, who was once the president of the university. On a wall on the first floor that I walk past every day, there is a mural dedicated to many of his quotes. In this moment, my favorite one is this one:
(If you can't read it: "If you avoid difficult things, great things will avoid you.")
I cannot and will not avoid Japanese. It may be a difficult thing, but I know that great things will come out of it. If I only speak Japanese to strangers in grocery stores for the rest of my life, that is a great thing. If some Rockefeller wants a translator on his trip to the Olympics, that could also be a great thing. For now, in the hope that great things will come to me, I will not avoid the difficult things that enter my life. I hope I can do hard things.
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