0702251700 - Five Months to go!

Sunday - the day of rest.
I woke up and tried to get that last few minutes of REM sleep that always eludes me. My alarm went off and said that the home teachers were due in 15 minutes. Things to do today - go to church and make a copy of a training session for a kind hearted man that I simply can not refuse. I went to the stake centre to record it from the church satellite system and then copy it to a DVD and insert chapters at the right places. I find this interesting.

We go to Hong Kong in five months. A few times today I have said to the family "...this time in five months we will be on the aeroplane to Hong Kong". The flight takes eight hours so I was saying this all day. In the morning I will bug them with "this time in five months we will have our first day in Hong Kong". For some reason I will find this interesting.

The Cantonese words that I learned on Friday have not sunk in - I can't remember the sounds that I have to make to say "I can't understand" in cantonese. I have nearly learned three sylables and I have 5 months to learn enough Cantonese to run a life, navigate around the city and get a job in the telecommunications industry. At this rate, that is, not quite learning three sylables a day, in five months I may, but not quite, know about 450 sounds that I can use to string a sentence together.
Learning a language is so much more than learning what sounds to make and in what order - the language reveals how the people think. When I was learning Russian I found it interesting that the Russians don't ask "What is your name?", they ask, "How are you called?".

I am tempted to use the language course that I bought off eBay but it is a pirated copy. I feel that I would be dishonest to use it because legally the CD-R of ripped mp3 files is stolen.

I could rationalise and think this way:

• I have paid for a second hand course now and the eBay seller no longer has the licence therefore I can use it.
• I didn't copy it so it is not my fault so therefore I can use it.

The plain legal side of the situation is this:

• I have recieved stolen goods when I thought I was buying used goods.
• It would be wrong to use the stolen copy as I have not paid the artist royalties and commisions.
• I have not entered into a licence agreement with the author.
• The eBay seller does not have the right to distrubution.
• I am entitled to a refund, however the seller is not entitled to the return of stolen property. As a model citizen, I should send the illegal copy to the police as evidence.

I have reported the eBay seller to the company that makes the course and to the managers of eBay. I have my $17.oo of amusement and will not waste any time over it because I also believe that we should not condem too harshly those that sin differently.