When I was getting ready to peach my first sermon in Vietnamese, I wanted to tell the congregation (not yet assembled) that my purpose was to persuade them to follow Jesus Christ. I didn't know the word for persuade so it was off to the dictionary. There I found several words fir persuade and chose one that I thought looked and sounded good. We had to let our main teacher look over our manuscript. When he came to my persuade bit, his brow wrinkled and his eyes showed dismay. I told him that I had used the dictionary to find the word. Then he explained that I had chosen a word that meant to persuade someone to do or join something bad like the Viet Cong. We then chose another word that I use to this day though it may be old now, it seems to be understood.
And, when I need a word I don't know, I may go to the dictionary, but I check with a knowledgeable Vietnamese before I dare use it since dictionaries can be dangerous.
Thursday, March 25, 2010
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