My group met with our family on Sunday April, 13. When we got there only the mother was home. She said that her daughter was playing with a friend so she wouldn't be there. Her husband was out as well, but he did arrive a little while after we started working with the mother, but left for a short time and cam back with strawberry milk for us. I thought that was a nice thing for him to do. Every other time we came to work with them, they always offered us something to drink and snacks. This could be a social practice that came with them from Burma or it could have been something that they picked up from being in the US. I believe hospitality is a social practice that Burma and the US shares. Anyway, before the father got home the first time, my group and I worked with the mother alone. I think that she was a little more open with us and more talkative than she was in previous meetings. This could have had something to do with her husband not being there, or it could have just been a sign to us that she was more relaxed with us and engaged in what we were going over. We went through the books that they had there again. She chose a book that was about ocean life and she had a lot of questions about the names of certain sea creatures and other things like that, which is understandable, since my group and I didn't really know much about that subject, either. We helped her as much as we could with those questions, but helped even more when she asked questions about words in the sentences, like low tide and high tide, instead of explaining why a starfish grows its ray back after it gets ripped off. That was a funny experience, however, when we did get to that part in the book that described how a starfish's leg was called a ray and how it can grow back when it gets bitten or broken off. She was very surprised that a starfish could do that, it was the way her face turned surprised and how she said 'really??' that made us realize that. Anyway, we also went over the pronunciation of words with 'TH', 'SH', and 'CH'. She was having problems remembering to say these sounds when the sound was in the word instead of at the beginning of it.
I think that non verbal communication and social practices were the main concepts that I got from this meeting. Pretty much at every meeting there was some form of non verbal communication between us and the family. Examples of this would be when either members of my group and myself or the family use hand motions to try and explain something or describe something; like when something is really big or when we need to try to explain something, like a book or floor, we mime out a book or point to the floor. Social practices that were in this meeting were when we were offered drinks and in other meetings when we were offered drinks and snacks. They are very hospitable people and just nice and welcoming. It could be a social practice from Burma to make sure your guests are comfortable, because one of the first times we we met with them, the mother talked to the father quietly and kind of tapped him with the back of her hand on his side to motion him to the kitchen to get us something to drink. I thought that was funny because it reminded me of my mom and dad, when they were together and had friends or work friends over, my mom would do the same thing to my dad to get glasses for water or tea.
I learned that just because people are from different cultures and different backgrounds, there can still be a lot of similarities when it comes to family interactions and group interactions, especially if these cultures are somewhat similar. I also learned that when you are trying to communicate with people who don't speak the same language as you do, or if they can't speak it as well as you, nonverbal communication, like pointing to certain things or using hand motions is a good alternative.
No comments:
Post a Comment