Blog #6

1)  A few themes that I noticed throughout our experience were perception, acculturation, and nonverbal communication. All the time my group spent with our family taught all of us to have different perceptions of each situation. My perception at the beginning of our visits drastically changed by the time we were done. At the beginning, I was very nervous to work with a family from the Middle East. Even though I was being judgmental towards them, I had never been around people of that culture so I wasn't quite sure what to expect. My perception of them in the beginning was that they didn't speak English, they didn't like America and they didn't want to be there. I was so far off with my original perception and I now feel that I have a better perception because I have worked with them. My perception now is that they are simply like everyone else. They were very kind and wonderful to us every time we were there. Every time we came they were very welcoming and excited to see us, which felt very good and helped us to be more comfortable with them. Not only did my perception change but I think that my group members perception changed as well. I also think that the family's perception changed somewhat from our first encounter to the last. The other major theme that I noticed while we were there was acculturation. Each time that we visited, we worked on their ability to speak English. They all were very determined to learn and understand what we were trying to teach them. Seeing how far they have come was an amazing experience, because you could see how hard they all were working to learn English. This is an example of acculturation because they continued to follow their previous cultures rules, however they were learning to adapt to this new culture and began learning and accepting these new ways. The last theme that was very apparent to me was nonverbal communication. I have experienced this many times before due to a language barrier. Nonverbal communication is used everywhere and is a very effective way of communicating, especially when you're trying to speak to someone that doesn't speak in the same language. In order for us to effectively get a message across to our family we had to use nonverbal communication because it was the only way they were able to understand most of what we were trying to say to them.
2) This experience has helped shape my future interpersonal interactions because I now know how to deal with being put into a new, uncertain experience with people from different cultures. I know that I need to go into the new opportunity with an open mind, and not allow my previous experiences or perceptions to effect the way that I act in my first encounter. I learned that I need to go into every new experience without taking into account my previous experiences so that I am not biased and am open to whatever this new opportunity has in store for me. After this experience, it makes me look forward to the next opportunity I will have to work with people from different cultures.

Blog #5

1) The last visit that we had with our family was a bit sad, yet again very successful. We decided to do something fun since it was our last visit, so we made cookies with them. It was a lot of fun and we ended up having a yummy snack afterwards also. It amazed me how well the kids already knew how to use everything in the kitchen. I don't think that when I was Baneen's age, I knew how to stick the cookies in the oven or how to turn the oven off or on for that matter. After the cookies were done, we looked at Tahgreed's and Baneen's homework. Tahgreed has been working on her alphabet and Baneen has been working on math and just simple concepts in English. After we were done looking at all their paper work and everything, we helped Baneen fill out a sheet for her school that allowed them to go to a pizza party. It was difficult to do because we could't figure out what grade Mustafa was in because no one was able to tell us. They all just kept saying no number, so Taylor and I both assumed he was in Kindergarten. We ended with watching a few episodes of a children's show. I noticed that the TV was on most of the time we were there and it stays on the children's networks. I think this is good for all of them and they have learned a lot from watching these programs.

2) One of the main communication technique that we use while we are with our family are nonverbal codes. Both the family and Taylor and I used kinesics to get our points across. During this visit we had to use them to find out where all the things were in the kitchen in order to make cookies. We also used them to help describe words to Tahgreed especially. It helped for her to understand what we were talking about. For instance when we would talk about her baby she would have to point to her stomach then count on her fingers to show us when the baby was due. Another concept that I can relate back to is the connection between meaning and words. The language barrier that we have with our family shows that words are arbitrary and don't matter unless they have meaning attached to them. It shows that the words they were speaking to us in their language had no meaning to Taylor and me, and vice versa. The last connection I made from this past visit, was each of their identities. I noticed that Baneen is adapting more to the American way and transforming her identity to the culture that she is in. This supports the four ways that we form our identity. Our identity is constantly changing therefore it is dynamic and multifaceted, and it is also developed from social interaction. Tahgreed on the other hand hasn't changed her identity. Although she is adapting and accepting the English language, she continues to maintain her past identity.

3) Unfortunately we aren't going back to visit our family. However, if we were I think that we would continue to work with Tahgreed on her alphabet and writing. I have noticed that she has come a long way from the first visit, and that she is really trying to adopt the English language. I think that for Mustafa we will just work on vocabulary and broaden his range so that he is able to understand what is going on in school. We didn't work with Saad at all but by the end of our last visit, we were able to somewhat have a conversation and at least get our point across. I found it interesting how easy it was for the kids to say sayings, yet it was difficult for them to just remember simple words. I think that it would be good to teach them more fun sayings and that might help with communicating with other people, especially since they're able to remember it better. Watching children's programs also has helped them advance in the English language so I think it would be a good idea to continue watching them if they have free time.