This sign in Taipei, though, made me pause. It caught me so off-guard that I didn't even realize that we - traveling with Zoe at this stage in the trip - fit the last category, that of a "family with small children and infant" [sic]. I stopped to take the picture, and then we went to the long line, never catching that the short line was for us.
Do you see why I took the picture?
"The Elderly." They are people.
The "Family with Small Children and Infant." Also, people.
"The Disability." Not a person.
Just as the "courtesy counter" here didn't realize the discourteousness of their poor translation, sometimes we in ministry turn people into categories. It's not us and them. People aren't projects to fix or products to create.
They are people.
Just like us.
Let's not overthink what we're doing, getting bogged down with strategies and techniques and plans and programs and... and... and...
Let's love people, because Christ first loved us.
The end.
Yes, it should have read "Disabled", but the Chinese language does not change words or word endings, and that is one of the main things translators struggle with. On a seperate note, my husband is a C5/C6 quad (paralyzed from the chest down) and nothing infuriates him more than for someone to tell him he should not refer to himself as "disabled". There are many things wheelchair users are not able to do (such as maneuver through a narrow aisle in an airplane) and there's nothing wrong with being realistic about that. It's not derogatory; it's a simple fact.
ReplyDeleteMonica, I agree that nothing is wrong with "disabled" in the proper context! And thanks for sharing about word endings in Chinese - I didn't realize that, and it makes the sign make a little more sense!
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