Eric's Beijing Diary

Pollution today. The town smells like a lumber mill. Must be a temerature inversion or something.

As far as I know, Haidian Jiaotang is the only church in Beijing that provides English translation. I don't know that for sure, but it is the only one listed as providing English translation. It is hard to describe how much this translation means to someone like myself. I am not comfortable with the language yet, and without the translation, I really wouldn't understand anything, except the hymns, and that only because many of them were translated from English. The translation service is not without its difficulties. Any simultaneous translation is going to be a bit spotty from time to time. But generally speaking, it really is pretty good, and it gives me a chance to follow along and get what I can from the text. If the truth be told, many sermons are not easy to follow, even if they be spoken in one's mother tongue. The prospect of having to hear a sermon in translation can actually have a benefit, as it requires more concentration. You are less likely to fall asleep.

Because He lives, I can face tomorrow,
Because He lives, all fear is gone;
Because I know He holds the future,
And life is worth the living,
Just because He lives!


Later in the evening Adam called me and wanted some help writing a letter to an embassy official. Adam is a brilliant self-taught scholar. But he has studied mostly on his own, so he does not have the credentials needed to get a good job. And his application for a visa is a bit pathetic, because he has no money, no job, no specific plan. He is obviously hoping to be treated as a special dissident which would entitle him to the help he would need to get started in America. Two factors militate against this idea. First, of course, is nine-eleven. The other big factor is China's economy. What are the odds that the United States is going to help a young man with no credentials find a job in America, when one of the most sensitive political issues in America today is the loss of American jobs to China?

Actually, I don't have much sympathy for students who are beating their brains out to go to America. I tell them it won't make that much difference for them. I would never say that about learning English. English is very, very important. But you don't learn English just to go to America. You learn English to go to Tokyo, and Bangkok, and Singapore, and Hong Kong, and Korea. So I am very sympathetic to students who want to learn English. But I am not much encouragement for students who think that going to America will somehow lead to fame and fortune. Still, old ways of thinking persist. There is a strong belief among young people in China that the pathway to success is to "study abroad."