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Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Report from Spring Break.

I am in currently on spring break, and in a medium-large sized city doing volunteer work. The other day, we worked with a family of refugees who arrived in the US last week. They speak a language I do not. I think this may have been the first time I have worked intensely with anyone who speaks only languges which I have absolutely no familiarity with. (I have worked with Spanish-speaking people, both years ago when my Spanish skills where very bad, but existent, and currently when my Spanish skills are not perfect, but very acceptable.)

It was fun and exhausting and interesting. I played Candy Land (which, when you think about it is a very, very strange game. With a very strange premise). I was playing it with a 6-year-old girl and began by just pointing and showing her what to do. She caught on very quickly. We then continued to play the game for about 2.5 hours, with various other members of her family joining in or leaving throughout our many, many renditions of the game. The whole time, I was naming the colors and number of squares to move, and I wanted to ask her how to say the colors in her language(s), but I didn't even know how to do that. By the end, she began to occasionally say the color names.

Throughout my spring break, I will be volunteering at other organizations that help immigrants. It has been, and is sure to be, and very interesting experience.

2 Comments:

Blogger Mr. Nauton said...

It's nice to know that Candyland is still the game that never ever ever ever ends, no matter what language it's played in...

11:29 PM  
Blogger Not Quite Grown Up... said...

Yeah, it certainly is the game that never ends. (Or, that can easily be played over and over and over and over...) But still, it's fun. Match the colors! Count to two!

9:52 PM  

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