Give Cheerfully

“When we give cheerfully and accept gratefully, everyone is blessed.” -Maya Angelou

I want to describe my journey for the past two times that I have visited my World Relief Family. Even within these two times, so much growth has occurred. 

The second visit we made we brought a note book full of lots of new vocabulary that our family could learn. We took time to point to each picture and see if they could say the corresponding English word. The topic we focused on were objects around the house including such things as furniture. We sat in a circle on the floor of the living room and pointed to objects around the room such as the television or couch etc. Many times the man of the house Taun Sang, would look to his wife, Hoi Len Par for the answer to the questions we posed. They would talk back and forth in their language to try to find an answer. typically to which she would reply, or he would look back at us and humbly say, "I don't know". He always says it joyfully and with hope to hear what the answer is. The third time we went for our visit it was amazing to see the progress they both had made. No longer was he asking us, but telling us what each piece in the notebooks were. When we pointed to objects, they remembered them! They must have studied hard. We have been trying to mix up the environment a little bit so that it isn't all just learning about vocabulary, because the best way to learn is to interact and learn from interactions from one another. Some other ways we tried to make them feel more comfortable was that we made cookies. We showed them how to start the oven and how to check when they were ready to eat, and I think they very much enjoyed the cookies. We ate them together, and anytime you eat together is a little step that makes a big difference.

We also play games such as "Go Fish" where in order to get a card you must say the name of the person you are asking. Even to the third time, it has helped tremendously to remember not only our names, but us to remember theirs. I think that during this time we really learned to be patient and ready for any questions they might ask. We left knowing that they learned something and we learned something too. Sometimes we take our language and culture for granted we don't realize the things we do every day that might be harder for others to do. It is good to go back and be reminded of the things we rarely think about. For instance: Semantics "the study of the relationship between words and what they stand for or represent." When we showed them the furniture the one week or food the next to us these signs are normal, to them the meaning that they attach is a completely different word to them! It would be like us calling a crayon a banana. Can you imagine!?

Overall it is good to be there. We are helping them learn, and they are also helping us to learn how to teach or how to interact with other cultures. I think the next progression or our next visit would be to think of more creative ways to interact with them. Although it is nice for them to learn vocabulary, it can in fact become tedious. Looking forward to the next visit and the new creative ways we might be able to interact with our World Relief Family.