Blog #5 - Post Service

          Reflecting on my time spent with this magnificent family from Burma, I found a lot of themes across my encounters. The most prominent aspect intercultural communication was our language barrier. Going into the experience, I did not realize how hoard it would be to simply communicate “yes” and “goodbye”. This really opened up my eyes to how truly difficult it would be to be forced to leave the place you have known forever. This lack of communication almost felt paralyzing at times and it was very easy to become frustrated. When this happened, I would simply think of a new way to do the activity or change activities entirely and try again at a different time. Also, to combat this problem, as a group we would work on connecting our words with our facial expressions and gestures. This way, the family was also learning. Every time I went into the house, I reminded myself to leave my ethnocentric way of thinking behind me. I have been realizing how prominent this problem is in America ever since. We expect everyone to be like “us” and if they are not, they are weird or less than. I think this is a big aspect in which everyone can focus on and grow positively. Once the problem is recognized, it is easy to adjust and to be more understanding. I think the biggest difference in our cultures could be related to John Hall's cultural taxonomies theory. I think the Burmese culture is more high context, compared to America who is low context. Here we do not like things to be taken for interpretation. I saw this difference most prominently in our greetings. As we said goodbye, we would try to say "goodbye" and express our gratitude for allowing us to come into their home. The family would simply smile at us as we left. This could be attributed to the language barrier, but I can see there is more to it. In the culture they come from it is not as important to talk all the time, they are more comfortable with silence. 

            This experience has already started to shape my interpersonal and, especially, intercultural interactions. I have been exposed to some cultural diversity in my life, but since I came to college my interactions have increased greatly. Now, I try to make sure I say hello to everyone, no matter his or her race or ethnicity. I didn’t realize my problems with this till I started learning about these concepts in this course. In the future, I want to become comfortable enough to really go out of my way to form connections with these people whom I do not know. I think if I begin to do this, I will learn a lot from different cultures. I also want to be a person who is comfortable to talk to anyone. I do not want to go along with America’s ethnocentric way of thinking, I want to challenge this thought process. The experiences we were able to have through World Relief are indispensable. I enjoyed being able to assist this family in such a simple way. In the future, I would like to do more work along these lines. 

Blog #4 - The Last Encounter

Finally, after seeing the family multiple times, going to their house became comfortable. As we came in, we were greeted by smiling faces. I could tell right away the family was getting used to seeing us weekly. During this visit, I came with a slightly different group, so when we sat down I had the family introduce themselves. We started off the session with flashcards. The whole family would read the word on the card and spell it out. It became very difficult to communicate verbally because the family did not understand many of our questions. Next, we played UNO. The whole family enjoys this game and it initiates a lot of laughter. We played this game in our first encounter with the family, and it was a bit shaky. This time, the family caught right on and did not have to ask for help at all. I laughed while watching the children attempt to cheat - this made me realize all children have the same instincts. :) Finally, the children began to read a book, taking turns reading each page. While the children did this, I worked with the mother on a medical form. As we went over the information, I found it very difficult to help her understand what everything meant. This made me realize how very hard it would be to get access to healthcare when you might not be able to fill out the necessary forms in the office.

            Due to our lack of ability to communicate verbally with our family, it has become very apparent to me how important nonverbal communication is. Simply nodding and smiling really can help the family understand if what they are saying is correct.  To communicate effectively, while working on English, I have found the interaction between verbal and nonverbal is key. The family has learned to read peoples faces very well. The tactics I notice I use to communicate effectively are repeating, complimenting, accenting, and regulating. Usually, using all of these tactics together us very helpful to make for optimal communication. I try to substitute and repeat at the same time. For example, I will not while saying “yes”. Also, if the child does something exciting, I try to accent my words by smiling big when I say “good job!”. I use these tactics throughout the whole session but it is most helpful when doing the flashcards. The mother’s lack of English made me feel sad. I know she is very eager to learn, I think she just needs to be put in the situations to do so. I think there is an underlying part of her culture where she is expected to stay at home. I think her culture has a stronger emphasis on masculinity rather than femininity.

            Throughout this experience, I was excited to see the family catch onto the things we have been working on from the beginning. While teaching them new words and actions, I try to further that knowledge my giving them examples are putting context to the words on the cards. For example, one of the words is X-ray, when that word comes up I try to explain what an X-ray is. I do find this difficult because of the large language barrier. I have a lot of hope for the mother of the family. I see how eager she is to learn and it inspires me. I hope in the future, as her children get older, she can go to work and grow as an individual. In the future, I hope to be a part of this change. I would love to have a future that empowers women of all cultures. It was sad to leave our family for the last time, especially because we couldn't actually communicate with them to say it was our last session. I hope we made an impact on their lives. If not by teaching them English, by smiling and having a good time with them.

Blog #3 - Sticky Notes!

On our second visit with our family, I felt even more anxiety. I knew this time we wouldn’t have our leader, Kelly, to facilitate the discussion. When we arrived, I felt the same immediate language barrier. We sat down and had the children write our names down again to make sure they could pronounce them. To our surprise, there was a new face, the family had a guest with them - he was a young neighbor boy who spoke the same language. The children smiled as we brought out our beginning activity, we were going to play games on an iPad. The games helped the children recognize different animals and words. Next, we began to play with sticky notes. Before arriving, we had labeled the notes with different things around the house. We went into the kitchen and began to ask the family about different appliances and utensils. We found it difficult to teach at first because the neighbor boy was answering all of our questions before the family had a change. We politely asked him to let the family have a chance to speak first. As the family found each object, we would place the sticky note on it. For example, we asked the children where the “oven” was then gave the children the note and had them place it on the correct appliance. After practicing in the kitchen and bathroom. We had each member of the family place the sticky notes without any help. This led to a lot of laughing and a surprising amount of learning. I noticed the mother did not feel comfortable doing the activity with the whole family, so I asked her to do it individually with me. As she went around the bathroom, I could tell she would hold back when she did not know an answer and not guess. I think the mother is in the initial adjustment phase of culture shock or the acculturation phase. I think her children are in the acceptance and integration.

 During our time at the family’s house, I noticed many different things that alerted me to their culture: their rug, language, food on the table, and even the pictures on the wall. This made me think about where these people were coming from and how they felt with us in the room. After observing the mother’s actions, I thought she was experiencing the initial adjustment phase of culture shock. Culture shock is “sustained intercultural contact that requires total immersion in another culture”. Firstly being honeymoon where the person feels happy and blissful in their new home. Secondly, culture shock phase where the person does not like the culture they have moved to and does not want to adapt or change at all. After he or she accepts their new life, the initial adjustment phase begins, where the person will try to find a job and make a new life. Often times this can lead to the mental isolation phase, in which he or she starts to look internally for answers instead of asking others. This can really hurt the person because they stop progressing. Finally, after all of these obstacles are overcome, the person can move into the acceptance and integration phase. I think the mother is between initial adjustment and mental isolation. I have been trying to reach out to her to help her progress because I can see her starting to internalize her thoughts. This could also be attributed to her cultural upbringing also, though.
Next time with the family, I think they would enjoy more games on the iPad and I think the sticky note game was really effective. Over the course of this visit I learned a lot. I learned how truly difficult it is to learn simple words like “door”. When people don’t know these simple words, it can make life very hard because American’s assume these words are basic knowledge. In the future, I think continuing basic, every day words is very important and can help the family more than anything. This knowledge will give me a better outlook on immigrants and refugees in the future. I could never imagine being thrown into a culture I know nothing about. I have empathy for these people, and I really want to see them succeed.

Blog #2 - The First Encounter

            The first day I went to meet with my group’s Burmese refugee family, I was unsure of what to expect. We were provided with the basic information about our family: their names, ages, and a brief “heads-up” on how they interact with Americans. On the drive over, my group toiled over what the experience was going to be like. To ease us, and the family, into the experience, our supervisor accompanied us to this session and led the activities. At the moment we entered the house, I could feel an enormous language barrier. I also felt the difference between our two cultures. When someone new enters my home, I always introduce myself right away and make him or her feel welcome. The family was very shy and did not say a word as we entered their home. The family simply smiled as we took off our shoes and sat down. I definitely attribute this to their lack of English knowledge and our different social practices. Our leader, Kelly, introduced us by having the family repeat our names one by one and we did the same as they introduced themselves. The natural reaction of the family was to write the names down, this is an effective way of learning new words and understanding how they are pronounced. Our first activity of the day was the game UNO. This was aiming to each the family their numbers. Next we played a matching game with Disney characters on the cards. We all laughed and we explained to the family what the characters were like. We also worked a lot on emotions; Kelly would make a face and ask what she was feeling. The family enjoyed this and it led to even more laughter, which made every one feel more confortable. The mother, Aye Mya, seemed to be very smart, but timid and afraid of saying something wrong. The three older children Do Moo, Moo Law La Say, and Paw Hare are all very bright and seemed to really catch on to what we taught them. The baby Eh Tha Dah Say was extremely shy and stayed with her mother at all times.  

            Throughout the experience, there was a large language barrier that felt like a huge wet blanket upon us all. The lack of communication led to a lot of perceiving. Perceiving is a process by which we take information in and seek to understand it. We had to perceive the individual’s facial expressions to have an idea if they understood anything we said. The social practices of their culture were evident in the beginning of our encounter and toward the end. We, as Americans, are used to a firm “hello” and a firm “goodbye”, but other cultures don’t have the same expectations. At first, I had an ethnocentric view on this encounter, thinking, “that was kind of rude, they should have acted more excited to see us”. But I quickly realized it was just their way of doing things, and I have immense respect for that. Ethnocentrism is a belief that one's native country or culture is superior to another. Their culture is obviously more collectivistic, focusing on the group, not so much “individuals”.
            After this first encounter, I was extremely excited. I was excited to learn more about this mysterious culture. I never got to experience culture growing up in a town of 1200 people, and I look at this service as an opportunity to grow individually. I also realized in our first day how much we, as American college students, could really help this family. I am not an education major, but by simply speaking English for my whole life I can provide some helpful support for the family. After realizing how large the language gap is, I knew the focus of our service had to be helping the family learn practical words that can help them in everyday life. My interest really lies with the mother; I think we can help her really become more independent and more confident in herself. The children's minds are completely open to the new language, I think with practice they can learn very quickly. I look forward to helping the family as much as possible in the future. 

Pre-Service

I hope during this project that I get to know my family's culture very well and their traditions. I would like to understand some of their language and also help them to speak fluent English. I hope the family is comfortable around us as college students and understands that we want to help. I am excited about this course requirement because I really enjoy service. I assume the people I encounter will be excited to meet my group. I also expect the children to understand English better than the parents. My knowledge about the population they serve is slim to none. I understand World Relief helps people who are displaced from their native country and have nowhere to go. I assume the people who come here have little money, because it is extremely expensive to travel and go through all of the processes they have to. Since these people are from Burma, I understand that they are religious and that they had to flee their country without an option. I assume World Relief prides itself on helping this group of people and I know they are passionate about the cause. The people coming here from Burma have been going through a lot of turmoil. I assume they are extremely culture-shocked by America at this point.

Learning through Service

How does service relate to learning?

     This question, to me, seems quite simple. I think of service as a form of learning in itself. When a person partakes in service he or she learns a great deal about those being helped and even more about themselves. Through service we get to experience new culture and gain a real appreciation for the little things in life. Learning through service is a two way street, someone might set out to do service, but in the end both the person served and the server will learn something valuable.
     Service is also another way to teach others. Spending time with a family who speaks little english might help them to understand more about our language, and again, the person doing the service will also learn more about the other language too. In class, we can talk all we want about going into the world and helping others - I think it is an amazing opportunity to actually do this as part of the class. We will face language barriers, cultural differences, and other difficulties in communicating with the refugees we are paired with. Learning to communicate effectively will be key in making the service beneficial for everyone involved.