Lucy TP-12

Yuki and I had a tutoring session via Skype today. Because I am living down in Wakulla, this is the most convenient for me, and still offers one on one conversation, the ability to write to each other, and share media.

Yuki was working on his Reading Log homework and I taught him the wonderful word of 'procrastination'...And how I knew it very, very, very well, myself.

Yuki didn't seem to want much help in tutoring, so I just asked him how he felt about his classes, and let him know that I had been on the lookout for resources for pronunciation...

An English dictionary that says the words and lets you see them.

and an awesome resource:

My ESL Corner

A compilation of lots of different websites for pronunciation. Games, audio files, everything.

I showed Yuki my cat, Jack (mentioned previously...at home Jack and I are pretty much inseparable) and Yuki opened up to me about some issues he'd been struggling with lately about his growing interest in converting to Christianity.

He's told me how he comes from a very old Japanese family and that he is the only son, but there is more to it... Yuki's grandparents are very devout Buddhists, who hadn't really liked that Yuki was going to the U.S. at all. His grandfather is what Yuki described as the 'boss' at a local temple.
Further, Yuki's family has a very old, maybe even ancient, family cemetery. If Yuki converts to Christianity, he won't be able to be buried next to his family... (I don't really know if this is a cultural rule or a family rule).'
Yuki also worries because traditionally if one of his parents were to die, Yuki would be the master of the funereal ceremonies. Once again, if Yuki converts to Christianity, he may no longer be able to do this (again, cultural rule, family rule, I don't know).

What I worry about is Yuki being too heavily influenced by Christians ignorant to the richness of the Buddhism.
Yuki has told me that he has never been a very serious Buddhist himself, and that his parents weren't really either, they just hold tight to the tradition.
I tried to tell Yuki that one idea might be to revisit Buddhism and really seek it out, and seek in it the principles which he really feels a connection to in Christianity. When he asked why I was a Catholic I was honest. Catholicism is personal to me. It's a church that I could visit anywhere in the world and feel at home in. I told him that learning about other religions had given me a lot of insight in to my own religion and had strengthened my value system, and that part of the discovery was realizing that I could enjoy, be fascinated by, and participate in religion, but I wasn't really up to having religion dictate a whole platform of thinking for me.
To this end, I told him I really didn't think all of his Buddhist friends and family would burn in hell for not knowing Jesus. 


I sort of want to tell Yuki about the movement in many Protestant churches to spread the religion to other countries... there's even a title given to the need to 'witness' in  "the 10/40 window" that some evangelicals believe. The 10/40 window refers to 10 degrees to 40 degrees north latitude on the globe, which has swaths of Africa, the Middle East and Asia..... The 10/40 Window

Ok, maybe I'm acting a little paranoid. I do think it's good for Yuki to be exposed to Christianity. I guess I really just have to leave it at that and hope that he finds his own way.

I asked Yuki again if he needed any help and made sure that he knew I was there to talk or lend help in English, whatever.

It can be difficult sometimes to be a tutor and a friend, but beautiful things happen with easy effort. And there's not much in this world that's easier or more beautiful than giving someone a smile and an ear.