Week #2 - Continuing to figure this out...

I'd say that this week went even better than last. This time, when I arrived, they greeted me happily and invited me in, but everyone kept doing what they were doing when I arrived instead of gathering around and staring at me. The third son, ThaSah*, ran and got his homework, and I pulled out the picture dictionaries, and we settled down into a relaxed couple hours of distinguishing "do" from "does" and learning the names of vegetables. Basically, I would alternate helping ThahSah with school and helping the dad (ThaPwi) pronounce words from the pictures. ThahPwi would painstakingly write down the words in English, their Karen equivalent, and then would have me say each of them so he could write it down phonetically (which was pretty darn cool to watch him do in the Karen script, which is beautiful). He would say it back a few times, then he and his wife (PaLi) and other sons would all say it and laugh at one another's pronunciations and "correct" one another and all look back at me and have me say it again. Very entertaining (for all of us, I think).

Of course, it took ThaSah only about twenty minutes to finish his homework (he's a smart kid), and I'm there for two hours, so the pronunciation lessons formed a large part of the time together. The second son, NaHu (formerly known as ThuWah, in my last post), started taking a lot more language risks as the afternoon went on, and showed me that he knows a lot more English than he thinks he does.

I'm so impressed with all of them. Seriously, they're amazing. And I'm starting to plot: When I was learning the Karen language by immersion, I had a big box of stuff--household items and food and nature and whatever else seemed relevant--and we would manipulate the items and names them and name what we did with them and talk and mime and ask questions, and it was ridiculously helpful (not to mention, fun). So, I'm thinking of preparing such a box (on a small enough scale to bring it on the bus), so we can add a tactile dimension to the language learning. And I think, come summer, I might be bringing some food. Because experiential learning sounds a lot easier than continuing to try to explain what a raspberry is.

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*Like I mentioned in my first post, I can't use their real names, so I've given them all pseudonyms which are vaguely Karen-ish. I decided to change the second son's name, because I like the new one better. And, you know, just to be confusing. But I hope to keep them all consistent from here on out.

Snow

I awoke to another dusting of snow. So lovely.

Week #1 - (continued)

So, Thursday.

I took the quite-crowded bus across the river (which is always itself full of interesting stores...there are quirky people on our buses) and arrived at their apartment. The whole family was there this time, so I was able to meet the parents and the oldest son, and to re-meet the three younger boys. I'm having a lot of trouble with their names, which makes me feel bad. Karen names have a general pattern of two syllables (e.g. ThuWah or KweeLah), and I keep mixing up the sounds among all their names. Of course, I was trying to learn the six family members' names simultaneously, along with three or four names of the Karen neighbors who kept popping in and out. But I'll get them. Or at least some sadly-anglicized approximation of them.

Anyway, I went in and tried to remember whom I had already met and whom I hadn't, and shook hands with everyone, and the second-oldest son--we'll call him ThuWah--indicated I should sit on the couch. They then proceeded to sit on the floor and various chairs around the room and look expectantly at me. All six of them. I tried small-talk: "How're you doing?" Smiles and shy mumbling. "How was school?" Same. Finally, there was a pause... ThuWah looked at me. "You teach...now?" Teach? Like, a classroom lesson to the family? Um... "Yes, I can teach now. Do you have schoolwork, homework, I can help with?" (This is what I was told I'd be doing.) The three school-aged boys conversed rapidly in Karen for a moment and ThuWah disappeared down the hall.

Five faces looked at me. I smiled. They smiled. We sat.

Finally, ThuWah came back with his grammar workbook from his ESL class at school. We sat down on the floor and began going through what he's learning (simple present and "wh"-interrogatives). And everyone else in the family--plus the neighbor kids who had shown up--continued to sit and watch. I wasn't sure what to do. Were they hoping to listen in and learn as he did his homework? Were they expecting that I would be teaching all of them out of his book? About half an hour into it, ThuWah disappeared again for a minute. I decided to pull out the picture dictionaries I had grabbed at the library before I left.

Good move. They pounced on them, and began looking at all the pictures and sounding out the words and talking with each other. Yay for pictures dictionaries. From that point on, it was much more relaxed (at least for me), because they could all be looking through the books while I helped ThuWah with his homework. He seemed much more willing to try talking to me in English when his whole family wasn't watching him, and I could stop occasionally while he worked and interact with the other family members, pronouncing words for them, having the neighbor kid (who's been here almost a year) interpret some of their questions.

By the time I left, we were all just hanging out, talking as much as we could, laughing, ironing out the pronunciation-differences between "violet" and "violin." It was good.

I must say, though, I'm struggling with the tension (faced by everyone who works with adult beginners in ESL, I think) between speaking simply and being patronizing. These are smart, smart kids. ThuWah almost finished highschool in his camp in Thailand--a rare feat--and the younger boys were on track to do the same. And--for the kids and the parents--I can't imagine how frustrating it would be to come into a new place, having been well-respected and educated in your home country, only to be completely at sea in the new language and customs and weirdness of it all here.

In short, they seem brilliant and funny and kind and eager to learn. I'm excited to get to know them better, and to learn from them as I teach them, and to let God do in all of us whatever He's planning to do through this time together.

This afternoon, though, I think I'm going off to buy a better picture dictionary than those at the library. (And maybe one that has "strollers" and "eggplants" instead of "prams" and "aubergines"...)

Week #1 - Figuring out how this all works...

Well, I've now finished my first "real" evening with my Karen family, and I think it went pretty well. I mean, there are definitely a lot of things to learn and improve, but I think the first steps were good, at least.

But more on how it actually went later. Right now I'm exhausted.

Cooliris

So, Cooliris is just about the freaking coolest thing I've ever seen. I just have to say. Now I can zoom through everything from my own flickr photos to thousands of Caravaggio paintings on google like I'm in Minority Report (only waaaay less icky). The only thing that would make it better would be if I could stand in front of a glass wall and move it all around with my hands...

Reduced rates

I just got an after-the-fact rate-reduction on my renter's insurance. Some crazy person named Margie who doesn't pay her garbage bills had somehow gotten onto my credit report back when I was first buying insurance, and I had received a "bad credit" ding that raised my rates. But now my credit report is fixed, and my rate is back down, and they're giving me the reduced rate.

There's a $27 difference between the two rates (per year). Think of all the things I can do now with this unexpected windfall! (I mean, "a penny saved is a penny got," right?) Okay, maybe not. But hey. A refund's a refund. I'll take it.

Sewing

So, I do this thing, where I have an idea for a sewing project, and I ask my mum if I can come home and "use her sewing machine," when I really mean "can I come home and have you figure out how to execute this idea I have and then have you sew it for me?". But she's amazing, and lets me come even though she knows that's what I mean.

Today, she/I made fingerless-glove-arm-warmer-things out of some knee-high socks I bought. I like them. They keep my arms toasty, and they're spiffy.

I really think I should learn to sew, though. Especially if I keep having these ideas...

A day of whims...

It is a beautiful day today, can I just say?

I signed up for a wheel-throwing pottery class this afternoon. I am beyond excited. Ever since seeing the pottery-guy on Reading Rainbow when I was, what, five?, I've wanted to know how it feels to have the wet clay spinning in my hands, and to watch it change shape as I change the pressure. And today I decided, why not now? So I found a nearby class, called them, and enrolled. I start in March.

Then I gave myself a haircut.

Who knows what else this spontaneity could bring...maybe I'll get on the first streetcar I see, and then get off at a random stop just to see where I end up. Or tour the library's eco-friendly roof. Or stop in at the Oregon Historical Society Museum next door. Or open a cookbook and make the first dish I see. Or something.

Hopefully I won't push anything out the window to watch it shatter on the ground, though. That's one of those spontaneous urges I get sometimes that makes me grateful for inhibitions.

Being a Grown-Up

Well, I officially have my first-ever business trip on the calendar: come February, I'll be flown down to California for--excitement of excitement--a meeting. (Lunch will be provided.)

And, even better, I'll be sharing a hotel room with a mischievous septuagenarian and an octogenarian whom I haven't met yet, but sounds like trouble. Good times are ahead. Oh yeah.

Success!

We finally met! Well, at least, I met half the family. The parents and one of the sons were at a DHS meeting (which I'm assuming is a Department of Human services thing, although Homeland Security would be exciting, too), so I haven't met them yet. It turns out it's a family of six, with four sons between the ages of 14 and 21. For confidentiality reasons, I can't give their names (which is fine, anyway, because in all honesty I can't remember them yet), but I'm sure I'll be coming up with fitting pseudonyms once I've spent a bit more time with them.

This particular meeting felt somewhat like a kids-meeting-the-babysitter thing (not meant at all patronizingly): the caseworker and volunteer coordinator put us altogether and then watched expectantly to see how we would interact. As if such interactions could ever be natural. The volunteer coordinator seemed a bit concerned that I was so "quiet", like he thought I was going to run screaming or something (my favorite part of the meeting was when he turned to me and said "So, Marybeth, what do you have that you'd like to say?" Uhh...). But I was quiet because it was weird; I think that next time I go, I'll be more relaxed, and they'll be more relaxed, and we'll find something to laugh about, and we'll have something "to do" together, and it will all be more comfortable. Even though none of them speak really any English. The language barrier isn't nearly as intimidating to me as being stared at by the two supervisor people.

The three sons I met today are all in public school right now (grades 8, 10 and 12), and it looks like my main job--particularly at first--will be to help them with their homework. How they're able to do any of it now, I don't know. Maybe they can't. So, homework help, and practice with conversational English. Then, once we "get to know each other," we might be able to go on "outings" (to the library or grocery store or wherever).

Anyway, it should be fun. I didn't even end up getting nervous. (Weird, it's like people were praying or something.) I'll be sure to let you know how it goes next week...

Sleeplessness

Ever have one of those nights where you're awakened by a strange dream you don't remember, only to begin coughing violently once you're awake, during which time your extremely dry lips crack open and add their bleeding irritation to the discomfort of air-deprivation, all of which movement alerts the cat that you're awake so she leaps on you and meows to demand your attention, which weight and fur of said cat in turn makes you cough harder and begins it all over again, at which time you just give up and get up even though it's only 3am?

Bah to nights like that.

Okay, I think it's true this time...

So, I think I actually--barring unforseen disaster--will be meeting my Karen family tomorrow. (Maybe I just jinxed it, though, by daring to declare it.) Yes. I don't think we're supposed to have any blizzards, and I don't appear to be ill, and there haven't been any catastrophic incidents disrupting the public transportation system...I think it will happen.

Hopefully it will go well. I'm sort of nervous. Mostly because I don't know that the coordinator ever fully appreciated my insistence that I do not speak enough of the Karen language to act as an interpreter (and I'm sure the fact that I'm studying Russian right now will really help with what limited skills I do--or at least did--have). I guess we'll just see how it all unfolds...

Back in Class

I just picked up my book for the class I'll be attending next month: Geoffrey of Monmouth's History of the Kings of Britain. The library here is doing a series of free classes on Medieval literature, one per month, facilitated by a local college English professor. And there are no papers! I didn't register in time to catch Beowulf, but hopefully I'll make it to Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and The Canterbury Tales, too. Yay. I miss talking with people about books.