Night Owls vs Early Birds

With the recent time change for some of us around the world to standard time (sorry, we are not in daylight savings time), it effects a lot of us with regards to sleep patterns.  It's almost like dealing with jetlag.  But interestingly, I do not mind this time change as we "fall back" and gain an extra hour of sleep that first day of standard time and I get to wake up at a more "normal" time relative to the sunrise.  But for others, some may wake up at 4:30am instead of 5:30am and feel rather alert, maybe annoyed.  I definitely fall under the "night owl" category waking up after the sun has risen while those that can wake up at the crack of dawn are "early birds."  

But... That leads me to question... 

Why? 

Why do we have night owls (such as myself) and why do we have early birds?  And how do these two types of people work in today's society?

If we were to remove any type of time keeping devices (clocks, sun dials, TV with set time for shows, etc.), and just go by the sun, how would that really effect us?  Was there any evolutionary advantages between night owls and early birds?

According to this website, there seems to be some advantages back when people group themselves into tribes.  Some people may stay up late to guard the village until late into the night while some would wake up early to guard the village in the wee hours of the morning.  Make sense.

But in the modern world, it seems like the "good paying jobs" are for the early birds, whether you're in the office or in construction or have to work a mechanics job that starts the shift before the shop is open.  Luckily, some office jobs do have flexible hours where night owls can start later but those companies are few and far between.  Most of us night owls have to suffer in silence while working in the early bird world.  But there are a lot of jobs at night as well with regards to healthcare, food services, and maybe writers/authors, artists, and musicians.  

There does seem to be some advantages to early birds: healthier and thinner, more positive, have a steadier sleep schedule, and can be more sociable.  Surprisingly however, night owls tend to be more intelligent, can focus more later in the day, and can be more creative.  

So, in conclusion: both of these types of people in the world came about through our evolutionary development as people interacting with other people.  What worked in our early days at humans being in tribes can still work today in our modern working world of the various occupations we have in our world.

Spooky Season

2012 NC State Pumpkin

I have been working on a blog but it's taking a bit longer than expected.  I guess when it's a topic that is heavy, it will take some time to write through and research.  So I thought I would write something else to fill in the gaps.  

As some of you know, it's Halloween and for those who know church history, it's also Reformation Day.  And although I could write a long explanation of the two, I think other resources on the inter-web can do a far better explanation than I can.  (Linked for the holidays in the first sentence of this paragraph but I think there are other resources you can search as well that might offer a better summary.)

Since my early adulthood, I never really celebrated Halloween.  After becoming a Christian and being on the more conservative side of the Christian spectrum, it was a holiday that was never encouraged or celebrated at the past churches that I've attended.  These churches would have a "Fall Festival" or "Truck or Treat" instead.  The main reason behind some Christians not celebrating Halloween is the connection between Halloween and the Celtic pagan holiday of Samhain.  Some Christians believed that the ancient Celts worship the spirits of the Otherworld as they pass into the real world during Samhain.  But the real story behind the Samhain festival is that the Celtic believed that on this day, the boundaries between this world and the Otherworld is broken or thin, allowing fairies and spirits to come into this world. The Celts would try to appease these spirits by feeding them food so that the spirits won't ruin their crops or livestocks for the winter. They would also dress up as ghost and such to scare off the ghost. There are other stories but this is probably the one most closely connected to where Halloween came from. So, it seems like they weren't worshipping evil spirits, rather they were trying to rid of them. When the Catholics came to Ireland in the 5th century, it was easier for the Catholics to adapt some aspects of the Celtish/Irish culture to convert them, thus All Hallow's Day or All Saint's Day was created to celebrate the Catholic saints. Samhain then became All Hallow's Eve which eventually shortened to Halloween. 

I think in recent years, I've been okay with Halloween and personally do not have an issue with it because of the reasons above.  Another reason is found in the passage in the Bible that talks about our approach to eating foods sacrificed for idols, 1 Corinthians 8.  The passage pretty much says that it shouldn't bother us if we eat the foods of idols because we know that an idol is nothing at all in the world and that there is only one God, all things come from God (even the food), and that food doesn't bring us closer to God.  However, for those who are new to the faith and/or still weak, it's best if we, who are older in our walk with God, shouldn't eat it in front of those who are weak, as that could cause a stumbling block and have them fall back into their old habits of worshipping idols.  I think by that, for those who used to worship demons, even though Samhain/Halloween isn't about that at all, if dressing up around these people could cause an issue, then don't do it for their sake.

However, I think it's a time for kids and some adults to dress up, have fun, and hopefully scare off evil spirits along the way.

Life of a Church Nomad

The life of a church nomad (me) hasn't always been that easy.  When I was in college, I became a believer in the Christian faith and came to accept a certain type of church culture.  It worked for me and I enjoyed where I was.  But after coming back to the Charlotte area, I have been bouncing around different churches ever since. 

I can't seem to settle on a church but some of the similarities I see in every church I go to:

• Sermon style - Most denominations in the U.S. have a Sunday church service which is auditorium style or classroom style.  
• Music - Some services start off with three songs (no more, no less, unless it's a worship singing service).  Some services will also end in one to three songs as well.
• Offering - Before the pandemic, there is usually a plate, basket, nets, or trays that get passed around to collect money for the offering.  Now-a-days, I see mostly either a box with a slit on top at various points around the church facility or giving online.
• Building - Speaking of buildings, most Sunday church services are held in their own buildings.
• Hierarchy - Moving away from talking about sermons, each denomination, big or small, have a hierarchy of pastors, elders, deacons, lay people, and so on and so forth.  Mostly those who are pastors or directors are paid positions, while elders, deacons, lay person, and other types of leaders are voluntary positions.
• Financial structure - Most churches, in my understanding, are registered as non-profit organizations in the U.S.  But if you look at some of these megachurches, you would think it's a corporate business.  

Most Americans, especially the older generation, grew up going to a Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian, or Catholic church, which you have to dress to the nine on Sundays, sit still in pews, and listen and participate in a service.  There is generally a hierarchy of leaders which can be good (gracious accountability with love) or bad (politics and authority struggles, or distrust and immorality - I won't get into all the details there).  There are other types of churches but these are your main ones in the U.S.

The church that I went to in college was more or less the same as described above but there was a big emphasis on "homegroups" or small groups.  There were different ones and flavors but typically, the small groups start off with songs, prayer, and then a Bible study.  There might be food, there might be some game playing afterwards, but the point of it was to build relationships within these groups and function as the church functioned in Acts 2:42.  We considered ourselves a "Acts 2:42" church as this is what we believed is how a church should operate and this is how the early church gathers for fellowship and sharing in each others lives.  No auditorium, no rock band, no classroom style teaching.  We got together, shared our resources, broke bread, sing and pray.  

Some of these traditionally churches have been trending towards offering more of these small group style fellowships.  But I think because Charlotte and the surrounding areas are so transient and fluid, it's really hard to have the same group of people stay in one church or one location for a long period of time to build these relationships.  And I get it, these churches are trying and I'm not faulting any one of them.

I think my ideal church and the reality of the church has started to clash many years ago.  What I grew used to in college is something I can't find in Charlotte.  So, in the past 10+ years, I became a church nomad.  While a lot of the churches have very good things, I haven't been fully satisfied by any one of these churches.  But during the pandemic, God blew my idea of what church should be, sort of like a huge reset button.  What I came to dislike is the institution of church, organized religion, and things I mentioned earlier in this blog.

So, it really brought me to question about the church.  What is the church supposed to be?  What was Jesus ultimate mission regarding his followers?  Did Jesus intended to establish an institution?  I think various answers I have heard in the past is that Jesus never intended to start a new religion (much like John Wesley didn't intend to break away from the Anglican church and start the Methodist movement).  I've started researching this to see what others have written and researched about.  

I think until I find a satisfactory answer, I will continue to be a church nomad.  

The Great Deconstruction: Part 2

I don't know if I made any progress since I last wrote about deconstruction. But maybe I have.

I started to write down my thoughts and feelings about different topic of Christianity.  I have this book called Christian Beliefs: Twenty Basics Every Christian Should Know by Wayne Grudem, and for each topic, I started to write down what I really thought.  Take for instance, "What is the Trinity?"  In traditional Christian theology, it centers on the belief that God and His nature is represented as three parts: Father (God himself), Son (Jesus Christ), and the Holy Spirit (playing himself).  But as I learned from watching a bunch of YouTube videos, this thought or theology didn't really appear until later in church history.  And this idea has been challenged even in churches that called themselves church that doesn't believe totally on the Trinity of God and His nature.  (There is a channel I follow on YouTube called UsefulCharts which the narrators use charts to explain history and family trees of different monarchs and dynasties and also to explain the different relationships in the Bible and other characters in other religious text.  There is an 8 episode video series of church history and denominations and at least one or two of them, the narrator Prof. Matt Baker explains how a few churches broke off from other churches because of their belief or non-belief of the Trinity.)  

So what do I think? Well, there are some particular passages in John chapter 1 of the Bible and then again in verse John 3:16: "God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."  And if you really believe in Scripture, you would believed that Jesus is truly the Son of God but he also referred to himself as the Son of Man.  But what does that really mean?  Should we believed that Jesus is the God incarnate? Or understand this passage like an actual human boy is a son of a human man?  (Side note and something I heard recently: "Man" in Hebrew is "adam", but when Jesus referred to himself as Son of Man, some believed he was trying to connect to his listeners at the time and identifying himself as Son of Adam, like he was one of them, decedents of the original humans.  The actual sons of Adam are Cain and Abel, which Cain murdered Abel.  Where Cain murdered and Abel was buried, Christ came as a sacrifice for this sin and a resurrection of Abel.)

The real question is: why?  If God is the only God, why is there a Jesus, a Holy Spirit, angels, and demons?  It challenges the thoughts that God is the only God and that there are no other God, but yet He's allowed to create and reproduce himself as Jesus Christ which sounds a little bit like reincarnation or a regeneration, and He's allowed to create angels which some become demons.  In Hinduism and some other religions that believed in other gods and goddesses, it almost looks like (or it does look like) that Christianity also believes in these many spirits or ghosts or what-have-you, and Jesus and the Holy Spirit.  But the difference is that, where Hinduism has many gods and goddesses that are on the same level of spiritual hierarchy and that many Hindus truly believes in the power and authority of these gods/goddesses, the Christian angels and demons are a lower tier compared to God and they should not be believed-in as the same level as God.  God is the ultimate God.   However, Jesus and the Holy Spirit is the same level to God, as they are God's essence, which brings me back to why Jesus and why the Holy Spirit.  The trinity is one of those theologies that might remain a mystery for me.

Thus, that is one topic that I'm still wrestling with about the Bible.  But I think in all of this, I still do believe that there is a God.  In my mind, there needs to be a catalyst for the Big Bang, where God made something out of nothing.  I know a lot of astrophysicists are in a big race to find the beginning of time and space, but I think believing in a God is not completely off the table when it comes to creation.  

Hello, World!

I've been MIA from blogging for a little over a month, so I guess I gotta blog something.  😁

August has been the longest month.  Not only does it have 31 days, it also is the hottest month of the year.  Many days, it was hot, dryish, and no matter the amount of air, it felt like God put the weather on air-frying mode.  The last few days, though, we have had a few pop up thunderstorms, which helps a little bit.  And I did not take a day off, which I probably should have just to use up some PTO time.  So the majority of the time, I worked, with weekends of running errands, and meeting with friends and family for meals.

So, what other things have I been doing?

Lately, I've been watching a lot of videos on the Chinese language and Chinese/Hong Kong culture.  I like to follow other folks who either know Cantonese, Mandarin, and/or know the culture but have a different experience/angle to it.  Most folks I follow are either half Chinese, half something else, have grown up in Hong Kong and live somewhere else, or grown up somewhere else and live in Hong Kong.  The different perspectives and experiences kind of enriched my knowledge of the different variations of what other have grown up knowing, and some of these stories are rather humorous as it usually have a Western spin or incorporates Western humor.  It's one of those "IYKYK" kind of things, and maybe something I uniquely know since I grew up in the United States.

I've also been watching a lot of videos on astrophysics and astronomy.  I think deep down, there is a connect of us to the universe, and learning more about the weirdness of space makes me think how odd and strange and beautiful our universe truly is.  Recently, I learned a little bit more about neutrinos and the nature of these very micro/sub particles.  I have heard about neutrinos but never really understood them.  And I think many space scientist are also wondering the same things about the nature of these things.  To me, it's like the Holy Spirit, it just kind of zips around the universe and can pass through us as well as around us.  I also heard that neutrinos may travel faster at the speed of light but scientist are kind of skeptical.

I've joined a local Christian singles group and so far, it's been fun and interesting.  Most times I join the group for lunch on Sundays but sometimes some folks in the group will organize other events (movies, going to dinner, tubing, hiking, going to the park).  They just recently went on a beach retreat but I didn't go because I just went to London and took a week off for that.

That's it, I think.  That's what's been going on in my world.  I hope the next blog I have more fun and interesting things to share from my brain.

Non-Barbie

When I was a little girl, I was given two Barbie dolls.  I would play with them for a while but then my brother thought it would be funny to take them and yank their heads and limbs off.  At first, I felt a bit frustrated, but then I kind of join in.  I lost interest of the Barbie dolls pretty quickly and went back to playing school or house with my other dolls or went outside to the backyard to play soccer with my brother.

Maybe about the same timeframe, my family and I went to Hong Kong to visit family.  It was the summer of 1987, and I remember going through the market and saw this doll.  I asked my mom if I can have the doll, and she said yes.  That doll was (and still is) my favorite doll.  I named her the English name Mary and then gave her the Chinese name "Xiao Bo" (the Mandarin pronunciation would be "bao"; her name means Little Gem, or Precious Child).  She went with me everywhere.

Looking back at this point in time, I realize my choice of having this doll was a sense of identity.  I don't know if I knew at the time that it was a subconscious decision.  I was picking a doll that looked like me.  I wanted a doll to know my sense of self and a sense of belonging.  A sense that someone had made a doll that looked like me, and I found it around the other side of the world.  

Don't get me wrong, I do respect Barbie.  And for many American girls, they identify with her.  But not me.

Going to Hong Kong itself was a curious experience for me when I was 7; who knew there was a world full of Chinese like me?  I think it would be neat to go back and watch my 7 year-old self experience the learning and wonder of another place and finding this doll at the market.

London: My Impression

 

Side view of Westminster Abbey

Now that it's been over a week and I have decompressed and somewhat rested from my trip to London, I want to take a moment on what I really think about London.

As my dad said before my trip, "Once you've been to a big city, you have seen them all."  To a degree, that's true but this is London.  How similar (or different) can it be?  And to my (un)surprise, he was somewhat correct.  I have been to many cities, Hong Kong being one of the largest.  London by far has more people than Hong Kong but London is spread out, where as Hong Kong folks are packed in like sardines.  And there are a lot of similarities between London and Hong Kong which I will note later in the blog.

One of the things I liked about London are the buildings.  Being in engineering, I often marvel at the old buildings in some of the older cities, not just in London but also cities in the United States.  I often think about what it really took to design the buildings, build the buildings, the cost, the time, the labor.  It took a very long time considering the technology they had back then.  And to this day, a lot of these older buildings still stand in London.  There are a lot of new buildings, which are just as impressive, like The Gherkin and The Shard.  

Another thing that I like is that there is a pub on almost every corner of London.  At least there were a few in each district/neighborhood.  They all pretty much have the same items on their menu: fish & chips, sausage/bangers & mash, some type of burger, maybe the Ploughman's lunch.  What I like most at the pub is the house beer.  It may be from a local brewery but it is usually a lager or light beer and oh my, it's oh so good.  There was one pub that didn't have a light beer, so I opt for a very light IPA, which was still pretty strong to my taste.  Almost every beer comes in a pint, so it's actually a bit much for me, but it is rather good.

Most folks say English food is not so good.  And although I don't know if I had any actual English food, the food that I ate were alright.  I think my favorite is the fish & chips.  The first evening, my friend and I went to a local chippy shop and I was like, wow, the fish was so fresh.  The chips (fried potatoes) were alright and I usually love potato anything.  I learned that that is how the English serve them with the fish.  This particular chippy also had other side items, which I could have ordered instead of the chips, but I thought I want the authentic dish.  And I also learned that fish & chips were not originally from England but were introduced by Portuguese Jewish from a long time ago.  

Another thing that I ate was sausage rolls.  This was actually bought from the supermarket (grocery store).  It was on sale at Waitrose, so my friend and I bought a pack to try.  Those were good, although I don't know if they were the real thing or if this was considered good to the English people.  (Not pictured.)  I also tried Anglo-Indian food, which I thought might taste better than the U.S. version, but I was thoroughly disappointed that it was rather sweet than spicy.  I thought maybe I ordered the wrong things.  

I did also bought some take-away from a local Chinese restaurant that served roast duck and pork belly, and I was like, eh, this is alright.  It taste just like the U.S. versions.  It was good, though, to have a taste of something familiar.  

The Ploughman's lunch I had at a pub near Trafalgar Square was amazing.  I didn't know that something so simple can be so good.  It had homemade bread, cheese, meats, a beef roll and Scotch eggs.  I was really wanting to try the Scotch eggs and those were great.  And of course the beer was good.

Another thing I tried is a Full English Breakfast (not pictured).  I think it might have been better if I went to a restaurant but it was good as a take-away.  The baked beans were a little strange to have for breakfast (taste was fine), and having tomatoes and mushroom was a bit strange too.  But the rashers, sausage, and eggs were good.     

Since I'm on the topic of food (and other cultural differences), I would say that even though I felt the price was reasonable, the portion was a bit smaller compared to the United States.  I think there's been a few meals where I could get two meals out of it, but most of the time, I was able to finish the meal.  Even when you buy a bottle of soda/soft drink, it is usually about 375 ml or 12 oz, where as in the U.S. it's usually a 16 oz bottle.  And I believe Europeans don't believe in ice, so don't expect ice to be serve with that water or soda.  You can ask for it but the servers will give you a little bit.  Most fridges with bottled water or soft drink are not as cold like the U.S., so don't expect icy cold bottled drinks.  But I'm actually not too bothered by it because I knew before going Europeans do not have the same love affair for ice as Americans do.  It makes sense to me; Europe is a colder place, further up the northern hemisphere, and they do not expect really hot humid temperatures like the U.S.  Also, based on my assumptions, using refrigerators at cold temperature could be a contributor to global warming.  I'll have to look into that.  (Which doesn't explain why Southern Chinese do not use ice; that might be another story for another day.)  They use paper straws (although, that is also a trend in the U.S. but not as popular).  The fridge in the apartment (or they call it flats instead of apartments) was rather large for a British home, but usually refrigerators in Great Britain are much smaller as they frequent the supermarket more often during the week.  I have had to go to a few coffee shops to order iced coffee or iced mocha.  Now I don't know if that is cultural accepted in the UK to have cold coffee, but it taste rather similar to the ones I've had in the U.S.

One thing that surprised me is that although I knew most of Europe do not expect a tip, restaurants in the UK are starting to charge a service fee on the bill (we would call it a check in the U.S. instead of the bill).  In the UK, they pay a decent wage to their employees, so to see this service charge was surprising but also reflects the changing culture on tipping and service fees, or just making sure they account for any unexpected rise in food and material cost.  Not all restaurants charge this fee. 

There was one day I went to two museums by myself.  Getting there and coming back was rather easy, as I will explain at the end of this blog.  I went to the Science Museum first and I thought, meh, I have seen and read about all these technology, so it was nothing new to me.  The Natural History Museum was kind of a disappoinment.  Again, I felt I knew the history but because many buildings in London did not have air-conditioning (and London was experiencing a heat wave that week), I was burning up.  And the further in you go into the building, the hotter it gets.  They had fans blowing in many areas of the museums but it only circulating the heat and humidity.  So I didn't spend too much time in that museum.  Had I known more about the British Museum, I would have gone there instead.

One of the main reasons I went to London was because the MLB has a game playing there for the MLB London Series.  My friend is a die-hard Chicago Cubs fan, and she really wanted to go, so I thought I would join her and tour London around the events of the game.  The game we went to on Sunday was alright, but not as exciting as I would hope.  I think because it was played at 3:10 in the afternoon and it was already a hot, humid day, so many folks there were just hot.  

I think overall, I thought it was a good trip, it being my first time in London and in Europe.  

But... in many many ways, it was all that I expected.    And in many ways, it wasn't as spectacular as I would hope.  Here are a few reasons why:

1. Hong Kong is almost a copy of London when it comes to transportation.  London may have been one of the first cities with a subway/underground train system, but it's system has influenced other cities around the world, including Hong Kong and I felt Hong Kong had made their system better.  So, it's no wonder when I first step into the subway in London, it was all too familiar with "minding the gap", the way the Tube system is laid out on the map, and even the type of trains that were used.  
2. The use of the Oyster card is very similar to Hong Kong's Octopus card.  
3. Speaking of transportation, both London and Hong Kong uses double-decker buses. I can't say which is better; it's a bus to me.
4. Also, both countries drive on the left side of the road.  And taxi/cab drivers drive the same way, kind of within sanity and kind of crazy at the same time.  You don't know how many times my friend and I have said, "He's just driving around to charge us more money."  
5. Hong Kong uses British English in writing, but "Chinglish" is its own language in Hong Kong.  However, many Hong Kongers do speak English in a somewhat British accent.
6. I've been privileged to work with many Brits in my career, some from as far north as Manchester and as far south and west as Gloucestershire.  So, for me to interact with the Brits in England was not as crazy as I would thought.  I actually understood them, even the boy with a cockney accent who owned the souvenir stand on Westminster bridge.  Many were nice and friendly, as they could tell I'm not from around there.
7. There are a lot of different types of people in London, so it's fair to say that London is a melting pot of many different people from around the world, much like Hong Kong.  I kind of expected that since England has invaded and took over many countries around the world for many hundreds of years.  One thing that sort of surprised me is that I didn't really experience real English/British culture.  Maybe I have but it wasn't apparent to me.  

Because of all the items above, I felt very very comfortable navigating my way around London.  I wasn't culture shocked at all and in some ways, I was expecting a culture shock.  But I knew too much about British and European culture that nothing was a complete surprise to me.  Don't get me wrong, I greatly respect the English culture, but I wasn't as impressed as I would hoped.  However, I think I will need to go back again in the future just to explore and may venture outside of London to experience Great Britain in a different way.

Choose Joy

 

I recently took a trip with a friend to London.  Although the trip itself was wonderful, it was plagued with delays.  Every time we went to a bus stop, the bus has left the stop, or if we go to the Tube, the train had just left the station.  The last few days of traveling was frustrating and annoying as our flight from Dublin to Philadelphia was delayed by 2 hours, which started a cascade of trying to get a flight to Charlotte.  When I was supposed to come back by Wednesday night, I ended up coming back by Friday afternoon.

But even on the flight from Dublin to Philly (knowing in the back of my mind that I will miss my flight to Charlotte), I heard God telling me to "choose joy".  How can I choose joy when there's been so many delays?  How does one define "joy" in the middle of annoyance?

Defining joy is quite difficult for me as this is similar to happiness.  But I guess you can see joy as an extreme emotion of happiness, satisfaction, and great pleasure.  But defining joy in the context of the Bible is even more difficult.  There is a different level and element to this type of joy which involves the presence of God in the situation that you're in.  

I found this article while doing some research and I think this pretty much summarize how I believe joy should be defined from the Bible:

'Joy is a choice.

Rick Warren gave us this definition of joy: “Joy is the settled assurance that God is in control of all the details of my life, the quiet confidence that ultimately everything is going to be alright and the determined choice to praise God in every situation.”'

And that's what happened.  I eventually made it to Charlotte and everything was alright.  And despite my lack of faith recently in my continuing search for meaning within deconstruction, I do believe that there is a God who is still in control of our lives.  Despite my choices of taking this route to go to London and back, God wants me to find joy in the frustration.  And of course, this is definitely a "first world problem" in that I had this luxury to fly to another country, enjoy my visit, and come back.  There are many people still starving and fighting for a chance for freedom.  And in that, and not in a selfish way, I do thank my God for the richness that He has provided, both in joy, happiness, contentment and physical resources.  

I thank God for not dying in the ocean.  Or crashing on land.  That I didn't spend another night in Philly.  That I live and wake up to see another day.  I thank God for eating some good food when I got home and sleeping eleven hours afterwards.  And in it all, God presence in my and your frustration and struggles should bring us great joy in that He's there in control of everything.

Across the Pond

I have been busy getting ready to go "across the pond." 🇬🇧  

If you haven't guess by the flag already, I will be going to the UK next week (specifically just London)!  I have never been, so this should be fun.  

I do have some familiarity such as knowing some British English and been in a country where they drive on the left hand side of the road.  But beyond that, I have no clue what to expect.

In doing some research, the The London Underground (aka The Tube) in London is very similar to Hong Kong.  In fact, I am pretty sure Hong Kong copied the style of mapping the metro/train system from London.  HK MTR system was ran by the same company I believe.

Another similarity is the transportation payment system using sort of like a debit card, the Oyster card.  In Hong Kong, it is called the Octopus card.  And in Seattle, the Orca.  Why a sea theme, not sure. Meanwhile, NYC kept it boring. 😆

I am going with my friend who currently lives in the Chicago area.  We met at a church in Charlotte years ago and became friends, and she knew that I wanted to go to London for a long time.  She is a die-hard Chicago Cubs fan, and the Cubs are playing in the MLB London series this year.  Their opponent will be against the St. Louis Cardinals.  Like most things during the pandemic, this game was supposed to be played in 2020 but was postponed until this year, I believe.  So we're actually going to see the Cubs play the Cardinals at London Stadium.  

I think I won't be posting a blog until I come back or maybe during the time I'm there.  But probably my next post will be a summary of the trip.  Until next time!

The Problem with Human Rights

I've started this blog some time ago but every time I tried to start/continue, I feel nothing seems to make sense.  Defining human rights can be complex, complicated and confusing.  What makes it difficult to define human rights is that many people groups and countries have their own definition of human rights.  It has led to discrimination, wars within a county and wars against different countries. 

But what are human rights?  And who's right?

Let's take a brief look at the Enlightenment (Western thoughts).  Much of Western culture is define by individualism which this idea came out from early settlements in Europe, Greek philosophy and later into European philosophy during the Age of Enlightenment (1600's and 1700's).  It is the belief that through science and reasoning, we come to understand the world around us.  Some people during the Enlightenment want to reform religion using the reasoning with faith, which led to deism, where religion is discovered by human reason rather than by divine events and revelations.  Much of this intellectual and philosophical thinking lead to the ideas of personal liberty and human rights.  In traditional history, I've learned that much of the earlier settlers from Europe to the Americas want to seek religious and political freedom and some of these folks brought their ideas of deism.  The Enlightenment years gave birth to modern democracy and also spurred on at least two famous revolutions in world history: The American Revolution and the French Revolution.  Both are same in many regards, focusing on the idea that people have human rights and the rights to rule themselves.  They do not want to be ruled by kings that do not give them the voice to express their rights and opinions.  Democracy gave power to the people and nations that practice some form of democracy protect the people's freedom to think freely for themselves.  The word "individualism" was not in use until maybe the early part of the 1800's after the French Revolution and often coined to people living in these nations, especially Americans.  There are some good things about individualism but there are also some downsides as well, such as being uncooperative if there should be a collective agreement about something.  Or people going overboard with their freedom and ignoring laws that are established.  

Let's also take a look at Asian/Eastern thoughts.  I am not as familiar with this topic, to be honest, but being Asian myself, I kind of have some idea.  I think the best way to put it, in my words, is that Asians like to follow a leader and work as a collective, rather than freely think for themselves.  They do have some idea of human rights, but they are more concern about honoring their leaders and family, doing what they think it's best for the collective rather than doing what they think is best for themselves.  In government, this is usually seen in the form of communism, where the state or government has a belief that economic and social stability should meet the basic needs and rights of the people.  But hidden in this philosophy is how this is met to what extent?  If a person or a small minority of people do not agree with the government in handling, let's say, labor laws, the government may punish them for opposing the government.  Or like when a group of people want to form a religion, but the government may see the religion as a threat, that government may try to use force to stop them or punish them if they continue to practice their religion.  People in the Asian culture do not always challenge their authorities, as they believe their authorities should have more experience in a particular job or topic.  There is some good in collective mindset too, but as I mentioned in the last few sentences, there are some negatives as well.

There are some interesting studies on the sociology of people groups that lead up to individualism vs collectivism.  Here is an article that I think summarize this topic well: Rice and Wheat theory

But let's face it.  Some government that says they are a democracy are not truly a democracy (the United States is often called a republic in practice), and some communist countries are not truly communist (China has open their doors to world trade in the last 30 years and their economy has taken off.  You also see a lot of individuals being just individuals but within the reason and culture of China.).  With each of these major types of government and culture, to what extent should a government protect themselves?  The U.S. wants to protect the rights of the individual BUT in history, we see that for a long time, they do not want this to apply to minorities.  Same as China, they want to protect the rights of their people BUT there are some folks they feel are a threat to their government because of religions or freethinking ideas.

And then there's the Bible.  The Bible never mentions "human rights" because this term didn't come about until much much later in history.  I started digging into the Bible for an answer and in summary from Genesis 1: 26-27: God gave us life and God made us equal.  God not only created us but He created us in His own image.  And for this reason, people have worth.  God values us, thus we have value.  Our lives matter to God, so we all matter.  And we should value the lives of others because they too are made in the image of God.  

The murder of George Floyd is what set me off on my deconstruction and trying to understand human rights vs what God say about this.  I was disgusted by how people were treating each other in their thoughts and opinions which makes me wonder what does it really mean to be human.  And the opinions that even Christians have about the matter makes me think what does it really mean to be a Christian.  If most churches are just preaching against racism, are they actually doing anything about it?  I even ask myself, am I doing aomwthing about it even though I myself am a minority in the U.S.?  If people understood Scripture that people are made in His image, and we were valued by God, would we really treat each other with love and the utmost respect?

The Great Deconstruction: Part 1

I realize it's been a while since I've last wrote a blog.  Things in my world has been busy and tiring.  Actually, I've joined a book study about a month ago, studying a book called Out of the Embers: Faith after the Great Deconstruction by Bradley Jersak.  We as the study group are probably about half way through the book, more or less, and it's been an interesting study diving into Christian/spiritual deconstruction and different philosophies people have taken to get to where they are.

I think to summarize "deconstruction", it is where one takes a spiritual journey to dissect the meaning and nuance of their faith in the Christian religion.  For some folks, they may end up back to where they started, only with a deeper meaning of their faith, while others have totally drop out of Christianity all together.

How does it all started? Well, "deconstruction" (at least to me) is actually nothing new.  Each generation of folks go through some kind of re-analyzation of the faith which may resulted in a new way of practicing Christianity.  You may have heard about the Great Schism (split of the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Church), the Protestant movement of Martin Luther which splits the a new group of people called Protestants from the Catholic church, and the Great Awakenings which birth a lot of different denomination of churches.  I think with this century, there's been a great shift of folks leaving the church because of the movements that started probably in the late 60's and early 70's, where Christians responded to the sex revolution and other hot topics at the time.  There was a extreme movement of Christian preaching about sexual purity (aka Purity Cultural - I wrote a blog about this sometime last year) and a number of other things that results in a lot of goofy practices.  I think into the 60's, there were a lot of hell, fire and brimstone preaching that came out of one of the Great Awakenings, but also into the 80's, a lot of contemporary teachings and songs also came out of this era.  Into the 2000's, the tone of preaching has changed to something warm and fuzzy and some churches were dubbed "seeker churches".  But the institution of church (the church organizations) that was established in the 80's (or even as early as the 1930's-40's) was still there.  

In a sense, I, myself, am going through a deconstruction.  I became a Christian at the tail end of the Purity Culture movement, which resulted in me practicing and having ideas that, at the surface, seem like good intentions but at the end, it just plain legalism and made me question my own worth.  I wanted to do things that I thought pleased God only thinking I will gain something in return, namely a husband.  When I have approached my late 30's, I realize how I am going about Christianity was all wrong, and it was more of a question about, "What is the church? And how do I fit in this?"

What really got me started in my thinking is when George Floyd was killed during the early parts of the pandemic in May 2020.  It was already stressful with people staying mostly at home to deter the spread of COVID-19.  So, I think when George Floyd was killed by the cops in Minneapolis, it made me think about human rights but more importantly, what were the rights that God has granted us as his children.  I started digging into the Bible for an answer and in summary: God gave us life and God made us equal.  God not only created us but He created us in His own image.  And for this reason, people have worth.  God values us, thus we have value.  Our lives matter to God, so we all matter.  And we should value the lives of others because they too are made in the image of God.  

But what is life?  And what does it mean "the image of God?"  

I later joined a Bible study online to study the book of Genesis and I noticed a lot of interesting stuff, specifically:

1. Where did Satan come from?  
2. What is sin and what is the origin(s) of sin?

I've written a blog a year ago just about this topic.  and it addresses more questions:

• Why isn't this the original sin story in the Bible?  (The only explanation I can think of is because God wanted to tell us a story we can relate to in Adam and Eve, and eventually through Jesus Christ.)
• Why did God placed the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil in the Garden of Eden, knowing that man's curiosity will eventually lead them to eat the fruit of the tree?  It was in plain sight.  
• Why did God made angels in the first place, before he made man?  Did God made a mistake in creating angels?  Were the angels some prototype until Satan's fall?  In Genesis 1:26, God did say, "Let us make mankind in our image..."  
• The act of Satan just goes to show, God did not make robots.  The angels were created to have free-will.  And just like angels, people have the same free-will.

But to go one step further:

If God is good and perfect, why did He make Satan and if God knew his character enough that he (Satan) was going to sin against God, why didn't God stop him?  The only answer I can think of is that just like people, God gave free-will and choices to His angels and God allowed them to choose their path.  Like the bullet point I wrote above, God did not make robots.

But knowing that God made angels and cherubs as they were, but these are not perfect beings themselves (and for I know, they could be prototypes to humans), how can I trust God that He is actually good?  What if He made a mistake?  This thought made me really question God.  Or maybe God isn't all that perfect and He orchestrated the story of how a certain people group, called the Jews, navigate their lives through the many generations for God to reconnect them to himself through Jesus.  More like God is saying, "Sorry, I need you to come back to me."  

In a conversation with a friend, good and evil already existed when God made Adam and Eve.  That's why there was a Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil in the garden of Eden.  As the Bible story goes, Eve was tricked by the serpent and ate the fruit of this Tree and then she gave some to Adam.  And that let in sin into the world.  My friend summarized that this event was when people came fully aware and conscious of the their own actions and their choices can affect their future.  It is the point in evolution that we went from being animals to being human beings. and because of this self awareness, we realize there are good choices and bad choices.  

Well, then what defines good and evil and where do we get this concept?  Here I'm starting to sound a little like C.S. Lewis where he kind of made a similar question in his book Mere Christianity.  Or more specifically: "If a good God made the world, why has it gone wrong? My argument against God was that the universe seem so cruel and unjust. But how had I got this idea of just and unjust?... What was I comparing this universe when I called it unjust?" ~Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis (Book Two, 1. The Rival Conceptions of God)

In another blog I wrote in March 2023, I sort of started to explore what other religions say about good, evil, and sin, and addressing suffering as part of this.  The book I'm reading with the book study group kind of goes into suffering and afflictions and its part on the grand scheme of Christianity.

And this is mainly where I stopped in my thought process.  As there are other topics to explore with my deconstruction, I may dive into it in a later blog.  But some things I'm still thinking through:

• If other cultures in the world does not have a concept of sin, what it mean for salvation?  Salvation is sort of a rescuing from something bad/evil to a better place.  In some ways, other cultures have a concept of suffering, which is in some ways a universal experience through all people groups.  In the Hindu and Buddhist practices, they stress on an escaping reality of suffering into a spiritual world.  
• How should the church really look like?  Jesus often escape the crowds, although they always follow him.  So, is Jesus for corporate worship or is he kind of like, "These are my homies (12 disciples), we're just go around healing people-just don't tell anybody, so we're good."?
• If humans were made in the image of God, what are we supposed to look like?  In Hebrew, "image of God" is translated to "tzelem elohim", as if we are a shadow of God.  It paints an imagery that we are physical creations of God under His shadows.  I need to dig more into that... 
• Gays/lesbians and the animal kingdom.  Animals have also displayed homosexual behaviors, so what about humans?
• Is the Bible part of a bigger picture in connection with other religions?  I have seen a video where Zoroastrianism has influenced the Jews during the Babylonian exile.  Most religions have some similar meaning about treating others, etc.  But Christianity, as far as I know, is the only religion that say to have faith alone in God rather than doing work to achieve salvation.  

There's probably more topics to explore.  But I'll be blogging about one of these in my next blog(s).

Crossing the Jordan (from my Facebook Notes last edited 4/20/2021)

I wrote this piece on Facebook Notes years ago, with an edit on 4/20/2021.  (Facebook disabled Notes in 2020 but you can still edit your Notes. It is Facebook's blog feature.)  In many ways, this is a journey I've taken in the last several years, which I will write/blog in a later post about spiritual deconstruction.

One of the most classic Easter movies in the United States is the Ten Commandments with Charleston Heston. I actually don’t know why it’s become an Easter movie only that there is a snippet of The Passover which is later a significant part of the story of Jesus. Much like the books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy, the movie tells the story of the Hebrews leaving Egypt under the leadership of Moses. (And most movies telling the stories of anything from the Bible should be taken with a grain of salt. I know so, I also watched the Prince of Egypt and it was slightly botched.) Along the way, the Hebrews (aka Israelites) have made a lot of big mistakes: they’ve made idols for themselves, they probably ate bad unclean things, they complained, they went to battle without God’s blessing, and so on. And where is the bathroom? (Dig a hole!-Deuteronomy 23:13-The Bible thinks of everything.) But one of the most intriguing things I find that kept them from going into The Promised Land right away is that they were afraid of the different people group in Canaan (another name for The Promised Land), after the 12 spies came back with the report of these evil people groups (Numbers 13 and 14). Only Joshua and Caleb were really on fire to take over the land. So, it began their wanderings in the desert for the next 40 years, to rid of the older generation and raising up a new one.

I’ve just finished the book of Deuteronomy and started the book of Joshua. While Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers were very heavy laden with laws, laws, and more laws, Deuteronomy, although it’s a summary of these same laws, the tone and messaging is like that of an old grandfather telling his grandchildren in a very loving way on how to follow God. Moses wants to prepare the Israelites for what’s ahead in crossing the Jordan and taking over the Promised Land but Moses himself was not going with them. Towards the end of Deuteronomy, I think Moses knew that these people are going to get tired of the laws and they will continue to sin and break the laws. In the beginning of Chapter 30, Moses laid out what will happen if you turn your hearts back to God.

“Even if you have been banished to the most distant land under the heavens, from there the Lord your God will gather you and bring you back. He will bring you to the land that belonged to your ancestors, and you will take possession of it. He will make you more prosperous and numerous than your ancestors. The Lord your God will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your descendants, so that you may love him with all your heart and with all your soul, and live. The Lord your God will put all these curses on your enemies who hate and persecute you. You will again obey the Lord and follow all his commands I am giving you today. Then the Lord your God will make you most prosperous in all the work of your hands and in the fruit of your womb, the young of your livestock and the crops of your land. The Lord will again delight in you and make you prosperous, just as he delighted in your ancestors, if you obey the Lord your God and keep his commands and decrees that are written in this Book of the Law and turn to the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.” ~Deuteronomy 30:4-10

It’s hard for me to conceptualize why I need to just obey God. But I think it’s the understanding of this earlier on in Deuteronomy 6:4-5 The Lord is God. And again Deuteronomy 7:7-9 God loves you.

Much like the Hebrews, I have been wandering for a while and making my own mistakes. But along the way, God was with me and I did my best to follow God. God showed me a lot about my character, how I think, how I was made, my talents, skills and my own weaknesses. But it wasn’t about me. All along, God showed me Him - His mercy, love, sovereignty, and that ultimately, He is Lord. And God is preparing me for something much greater than myself. There is a Jordan River I’m about to cross and yet I don’t know what lies ahead. A phrase and theme I see from the end of Deuteronomy and into the first part of Joshua is from this verse: “The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.” ~Deuteronomy 31:8

To us a Child is Born

I originally started writing this for Christmas, but I had this thought at the time to save it for Holy Week.

I've recently watched A Charlie Brown Christmas.  I knew that towards the end, Linus would recite the verses from Luke 2.  After the film, I went back to Luke to read this for myself.  I think I must have read this tons of times before and often times when I read scripture, I often think of all the funny things that could happen.  I can imagine that all the shepherds were quite startled by the sudden appearance of an angel of the Lord as they were filled with great fear.  Like, "Yowzers!  What in the world??"  

In this particular story of the Gospel, the angel appeared to shepherds.  Not kings or priests, nor any teachers or leaders of the Jewish community.  This to me shows the character of God, that He would show us his grace and humbleness in picking ordinary people to share in His extraordinary story of Christ, and that Christ is for all people.

'And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying

“Glory to God in the highest,

and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”'

(Luke 2:8-14)

So much of this story is focused on the birth of Christ as a human baby but it also foreshadows what is to come.  When Mary marveled at this child and kept her thoughts to herself, was she thinking that someday this child will be driven into a cross?  God chose an ordinary woman to bear the Christ, He chose a carpenter to be his earthly father, and Jesus was amongst the poor, sick, and those who didn't belong to society.  Ordinary people to share and witness the extraordinary life of Jesus.

Birth Pains

In the Bible, Jesus is telling his disciples about his second coming.  He tells his disciples the wars, famines and earthquakes that will happen prior to his coming.  He said to them, "All these are the beginning of birth pains." (Matthew 24:8)

This has taking me a few days to really processed what happened on Monday, March 27th, 2023, at the Covenant School in Nashville, TN. I feel a deep sense of sadness but also a huge amount of anger and frustration. When it comes to guns, it seems we're still stuck with the political bull-crap that is going on in Congress. I understand that in the 2nd Amendment of the Constitution, we have a right to bear arms in the United States, but I doubt that the founding fathers of this country foresaw this coming.  It really burdens me that people should use weapons as a source to display their emotions, their anger, their hate, their frustration.  Guns are meant for defense, not to kill innocent lives for no reason.  Guns are not the answer.  Children should be able to go to school, learn and have fun, and not for their parents to worry about their safety.  

What surprised me this time is that it happened at a Christian school. Somewhere you would think children should be safe(r). I often ask, "Where has the church failed this child/person?" Maybe I shouldn't blame the church but it must be a question that has crossed a lot of people's minds by now.  

I do believe we need stricter gun laws.  We need to override some HIPAA laws and allow psychiatrist and counselors to report patients to authorities with mental issues and disorders.  We need background checks.  We need to stop people from buying assault rifles and military type weapons.  They have no business owning those unless they are working in the military.  We need more programs to address mental illness.  We need more compassion, kindness and respect to those who are going through a lot of hurt.

I do understand the 2nd Amendment.  It was a law created to protect us from real issues like foreign invasions and a tyrannic government.  It can happen.  It was created so that we can own guns to protect ourselves.  I have no issues with people owning guns as long as it is used for self-defense and nothing heinous.  I just want to advocate gun laws so that guns do not end up in the wrong hands.

We do need prayer but we also need to do something beyond that.  And most of us don't really know how to move forward, I feel.  We can only do so much to petition for stricter gun laws to our local lawmakers as well as our congressman.  But with them being divided on this issue, I don't know if this will get done.  We can only push and continue to work with them towards having stricter laws.

These are the birth pains we are experiencing today...

Everything, Everywhere, All at Once... For a Very Long While: What Hollywood Got Wrong... Again

Data from the U.S. Census Bureau of 2020 U.S. Demographics by Race
(but I made the pie chart because I'm a dork like that...)

Today is Pi (π) Day and I thought it would be fitting to start off the blog with a pie chart.  I seriously didn't plan it this way but it just happened that I was looking for a way to display U.S.'s demographics and I always like pie charts to show such information.  

A few nights ago, I watched the Academy Awards (aka The Oscars) which I usually don't watch every year. I don't watch a lot of movies but since the last few years were weird, I did watch more movies that usual.  I particularly wanted to watch the Oscars this year because the film Everything, Everywhere, All at Once had 11 nominations for various categories, and it is one movie I did see last year.  And I actually was a little surprised that so many awards were awarded to the cast and crew of this film.

I am very proud of the folks of this movie who received an Oscar, or collectively received the Oscar.  As a Chinese American who grew up in the U.S., I can easily relate to the Chinese American family portrayed in the movie.  I was that little girl, Joy, who wrestled with a lot of things, growing up with parents from Hong Kong and struggling to fit into the American culture. The movie really centered around Michelle Yeoh's character Evelyn Wang, the mother of the family, who felt her life doesn't make sense.  I think in her mind, she could have been so many other things, hence the loopy trip she took throughout the multiverse during the movie.  There were even a few scenes of her as a movie star, but it was really a flashback of her acting days in Hong Kong.  At the end, all that matters is that she is present for her daughter and her husband.

So, looking at the title of this blog, you might ask, "So what is wrong?  Hollywood actually nominated and awarded the Academy Awards to many Asians this year, and many of Chinese descent."  Michelle Yeoh was born and raised in Malaysia, but her parents are of Chinese descent. Ke Huy Quan is originally from Vietnam, but he is also from Chinese descent.  Stephanie Hsu is Chinese American.  James Hong is also Chinese American.

While this is a phenomenal year for Asians to represent, be nominated and earn so many awards, Hollywood again missed the mark when it comes to Black actors and film makers in the film industry.  So, let's look at the pie chart.   If Hollywood truly reflects the actual population of the U.S., there should be more Black actors and film professionals nominated and awarded the Oscars.  In all of the Academy's history, only 60 Black actors/actresses have been awarded the Oscars.  I know it's hard to put a percentage for the Academy Award wins (since some of the awards are for best picture and best screen play, which involves many people), 60 Black professionals out of 95 years of the awards is a very small percentage.  And having so many Asians win this year, it makes you wonder how Hollywood really view their talents.

I wouldn't be surprised if for the next 10 years, there won't be as many awards for Asians.  This might be it for a while.

The Tool of Languages

I started this blog nearly 9 years ago but never completed/published.

Languages is a very important and powerful tool in our daily lives.  It is the means and complex system of communicating to one another our thoughts, ideas, and basic needs.

Being more of an engineer and not a linguist, I draw on my experiences as an engineer to analyze how people speak in a non-science way.  Just listen.  Talk to people.  How do they communicate?

For a while now, I have this theory that learning a mother tongue (as well as home culture) can partially shape someone's psychology.  (Genetics and environment can be another factor in psychology.)

Take for instance, this TEDx talk... In a practical example, Phuc Tran (yes, that is his name) used his knowledge of the Vietnamese language and English as well to compare the differences on grammar but more importantly, how grammar effects how we think about past, present, and future, and the "what if's".  It seems that in Vietnamese, there is no "would be, could be, should be" scenarios.  It's about, "This is my life, I'm going to live it."  There is no "what if's."  What if our lives did not run on "would be, could be, should be"?  It's really a life of, "This is how it is!"

I look back on my Chinese language.  And realize some differences as well.  For starters, Chinese doesn't conjugate verbs.  Timing (yesterday, today, tomorrow, now, later) is usually placed in the sentence to indicate when something is doing when.  Okay, that might be a minor thing.  However, there are many accents and many ways and nuances of phrasing sentences in the Chinese language.

When I listen to Chinese from mainland speak Mandarin, it is very sing-songy.  There is a bounce and rhythm to their speech patterns suggesting a history of past art, poetry, and singing in the the country.  But in some ways too, a carry-over of metaphors can be heard in their speech.  I find that many from the mainland like to pepper their speech, not shaming themselves in anyway and bring dishonor to themselves or their families or even admitting wrong.  Please note, I'm being very general.  Because I do know many Chinese who are more "Western" in their thinking.

But how does all of this play into their psychology?  Much like the Vietnamese, they tend to settle for "it is what it is".  For example, if one is going through school and they are labeled or set to go through school in math and science and later going through engineering.  That's it.  That's their course and there is no turning back.  Or questioning themselves of "What if I did this?  Could I have been a chemist?"  Even if later they may find out they are horribly bad at engineering, there is no real turning back.

Then you start to segue to Cantonese.  The Cantonese people (Southern China, around Hong Kong, Macau, and Guangzhou) have the most exposure to the British, Portuguese, and Western culture.  If you can sit with a person from Hong Kong, their speech is very different.  It is what you may call "more Western".  Their language does include the "what if's" that Westerners are more used to.  Although Hong Kong still has some form of British system in education, their thoughts and language kind of steer their course more so than what a test tells them to do.  

Language is very interesting to study.  I would like to learn more about other languages and how culture shaped language and vice versa.