Blog #2: Getting to Know Our Family

After having some problems with our first family, we asked Kelly if we could switch families. We were switched to a new family the this week and are getting to know them. There is a dad, Thawn, a mom, Mang Nu, and 4 children. There is a girl who is 8, Niang, a boy who is 4, Mon Song, a boy who is 18 months, Mon Mon, and a 9 month old boy, Moi.

At first I was a little nervous because we had to go through the awkward first few minutes but after that we were fine. The family was extremely welcoming and nice. The mom stays home and takes care of the 3 little boys and the dad works at the Tyson factory during the day. Also, the girl, Niang, goes to school. After we introduced ourselves we decided to evaluate what the mother knows. We went though the alphabet, numbers, colors, and shapes. She knew all of them. Then even went over body parts, clothes, and even some parts of the house. She knew all of those too. We figured out that the family had been here for about a year. In that time she had learned a lot. After we asked her some more questions, we grabbed a book and asked her if she could read. She read pretty well and only had trouble with a few words. We also asked her to write some things and that is where we discovered she needed help. She knew her letters and what they looked like but did not know how to write them. So that was our new goal was to teach her how to write letters and eventually words and sentences. We started out just having her sound the letters out and teaching her how to trace the letters. 

In addition to working with the mom we decided that we could work with Niang and the little boy Mon Song. Niang knew a lot of English but needed help learning addition. Also we wanted to see what Mon Song knew. Niang was more than willing to learn however her brother was not. He was very shy and did not talk to us at all. 

soon our time was up and had to leave. I felt very accomplished. We got off to a great start but we do have a long way to go. In the future I want to get Mon Song to open up so we can start working with him because he will pick up English very fast. Next time I think we are going to split up into groups so that way the family will not be overwhelmed. Two people can work with the mom on writing, two people can work with Niang, and two people can work on getting Mon Song to open up. I am looking forward to our next visit especially because the mom said that she wants to cook dinner for us. I feel really good about what we are doing and I think we are really going to help this family learn. I also think they will be teaching us about Burmese culture as much as we are teaching them about American culture. 

Before I met my Family

I am very nervous to meet my family for the first time. There are a mom, dad, and 2 sons.  I am most nervous about the language barrier. Also I think that is the thing that could be the most exciting. I am nervous that she will not be able to understand us and we will not be able to understand her. But at he same time this is an opportunity for us to learn some words in her language. We will not just be the teacher but she can also be the teacher by teaching us words and phrases in her language. I love teaching people new things and this is a great opportunity to do just that. I also love learning new things. I think my first visit will be a lot of introduction and just trying to asses where we need to start and some of the first things we should teach her. I want to try and bring some pictures or books to help her start learning through visual aids. I am really excited and nervous at the same time for our first meeting and the rest of the semester.