Sit down & Shut your big mouth!

As I continue to study and learn more of the language that surrounds me, I find myself needing to learn new phrases which can't be found in my grammar books, children's stories, or New Testament reading. Last night was one of those times when it seemed like a good idea to seize an opportunity to do so. One of the new teachers at the Mission's Training Center was discussing language with us and commented that the only phrase he remembers from college French class is, "Sit down and shut your big mouth!" Some of us(Chris & I) found this highly amusing and thought we would practice our Russian skills by trying to construct this sentence correctly and then try it out on unsuspecting friends leaving the bible study.

All was going well, with the reactions ranging from looks of astonishment(the girls) to hysterical laughing(the boys), until I decided to try it out on my youngest accountability partner. The withering look that I received very quickly told me that some damage repair needed to be done. Basically, the issue was that she finds it very disappointing that a believer would find it necessary or amusing to add such language to his/her vocabulary. Ouch. That put me into my place and made me sit back and think. Granted, the first thought I had was that I needed to choose people with better senses of humor to practice my new phrases on. But then my second thought was that I need to be much more mindful of the new believers and their expectations of us. It was a good learning experience for me, as she basically told me without saying the actual words, "Sit down & Shut your big mouth!"