Can you have confession heard by a priest who doesn't know your language well enough?

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That’s fine with me if they cut out the hyper-education if it meant the end of my teaching stint here, though I’m not as comfortable here as you two either, so I can say it easier.
There is nothing inherently wrong with them not having ninjas, samurai, geisha and the relaxing shakuhachi, as they do have a beautiful Catholic observance in most parishes–probably more than at home (despite some casualness outside of presermon homily humor)–and they have their own saints and a blessed as well (this all is what is more important for them.

Still, they need to get Koreans together against the smut or all the observance, despite harmonizing contradictions (if it’s possible), will be of no avail as Satan is all for “harmonizing” good and evil and not leaving mother and father and family for the Kingdom of God if God calls you to that life (though you’d still have community of mostly Korean people). Smut is smut. The naked soul will understand that after death and I can hope the ignorance will not be held against those who look at the stuff.

That’s all I will say here about that so we can talk about the original topic, if anyone has more to say about that. You’d better PM me for other comments, if you want.
 
foolishmortal said:
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There is nothing inherently wrong with them not having ninjas, samurai, geisha and the relaxing shakuhachi, as they do have a beautiful Catholic observance in most parishes–probably more than at home (despite some casualness outside of presermon homily humor)–and they have their own saints and a blessed as well (this all is what is more important for them.

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I’ve lived in Japan for 12 years now (has it really been that long?) and have never seen nor talked about ninja,samurai or geisha. They are not topics of normal life apart from a few TV dramas. Life in Japan is nothing like I’d read before coming here. In fact it is not that different than home. However, the educational system is awful and the entrance system is called “examination hell”. Kids aiming for a good high school or university don’t have much of a life outside of studying. Kids as young as 1 are sent to foreign language classes and the number of educational toys, books and parents’ books on education are staggering. I imagine the situation is the same as in Korea.
You also have lots of pornography in Japan and it is not unusual to see pornographic magazines next to children’s magazines in a store. Also your will find disturbing pictures on many magazines, newspapers and on cards in telphone booths. Men will read a graphically pornographic manga while sitting on the train where young children can see everyhting.
Make an effort to learn the language. It will make a big difference to your quality of life and travel around a bit. I used to get lost all the time too until I realised that I was used to using different landmarks for navigating. I’ve been to Korea on holidays and loved it. I found the people much more willing to help a lost foreigner than in Japan.
Getting back to the confessin bit, I’ve tried to do it in Japanese but after accidently telling the priest that I was angry and had killed my husband (I wanted to say I’d lost my temper and had felt like killing him) I now wait for an English-speaking priest or try to go when I visit a larger city. I think the poor priest almost had a hear attack when I said I’d killed my husband.

Good luck and make the most of your time in wonderfully exciting country.
Gearoidin
 
My “fear” is to have the priest ask me a question and not understand him and then not understand my penance:D we have serveral foreign priests down here and their accents are very hard to understand, but I am told that we Cajuns have heavy accents also:D 😃
 
CatholicCajun said:
My “fear” is to have the priest ask me a question and not understand him and then not understand my penance:D we have serveral foreign priests down here and their accents are very hard to understand, but I am told that we Cajuns have heavy accents also:D 😃
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Fortunately in Korean, the word for Rosary is Rosario, so it’s easy to give someone the Rosary as a penance.

Unfortunately, the priest isn’t able to ask questions.

The whole thing is very awkward, but if the choice is an awkward confession or no confession, I know what my choice is.
 
Thanks! I just wondered if it’s canonically ok.

I know Japan isn’t a Rorouni (sp?) Kenshin episode (which even then is not all flowery romanticism), but I can pronounce the words! The blank looks here are so discouraging, though not mean.

I know America has its problems–many. I don’t mean to sound ethnocentric or anti-Korea. It’s just that I just am not fascinated by it, overall. It just has the general Asian stuff like masks and drums–though the bows and arrows is good and the super-healthy food thing is interesting–but I’ll go Mediterranean first, thank you. Religious devotion [unless it’s an obviously evil one–not just psalm 95 stuff about the gods of the pre-Christian) Gentiles] and friendly people is more important in and of themselves–but not enough for homesick me. Hopefully, it won’t go away, but I think it is starting to. Smut is smut and it can wreck a decent society. A Japanese friend says that this community of Japanese in Taiwan are more Japanese than Japanese today! They do have Akita, though and the memory of Nagasaki.
 
Oh boy. I forgot about the Act of Contrition. Is that required? He might have been feeling uncomfortable with not knowing English well or he understood “scrupulosity” and in any case, thus, pointed to the “for this and other sins I have committed” text in English in his book and so I rushed and had to quickly resolve dilemnas about whether I should include this or not if he doesn’t understand that much. It was kind of a idea I had when I learned the Irish priest wasn’t coming and I heard the priest saying some stuff in English without reading anything. I forgot the Act of Contrition, but my sins were before me–the ones really bugging me, for sure. I just hope enough of the kind and number of the sins were present for the odd situation I was in.
 
Sorry about post 25, moderators, as I went back on my word of not continuing the Korean culture, pseudo-culture, or half ‘n’ half culture and pseudo culture discussion, but I felt I had an omission of charity to amend in what I said about it. I just worry for it as it has so much potential for greatness (even though it just doesn’t fascinate me, personally).
 
dessert said:
Don’t feel bad you can ask any question here and we will kindly direct you if we can.
I have no idea who Juniper is.
I have a suggestion also that if you can use a cassette player record your sin and take it to someone to translate to south Korean and even your act of contrition have translated to Korean and play it during confession.
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I have to chuckle when I think of asking a friend, oh, by the way, would you please record my sins on a cassette tape in Korean. I think you could say the act of contrition in English since God is multi-lingual.

FYI, it isn’t required to go to confession during lent although it’s a good idea. We are required to confess our sins at least once a year and to receive communion during the Easter season. Of course, one must confess first if in a state of mortal sin.
 
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