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.