The End.

As my time as a volunteer at World Relief has come to an end, I realize the importance of the experience I have had over the past few months. I was given the opportunity to enter a families life and make a change, even if it were small. With each interaction with the Ling family, there was progress not only within their skills we focused on, but with their willingness to open up to us. We did everything with them from; flash cards, math problems, counting money, reading books, filling out fake job applications, placing sticky notes in the proper places around the house, playing matching games with the kids, and watching Finding Nemo to taking funny pictures with Halloween fangs in. As much as I didn't want to admit it, I am actually going to miss spending time with the Ling family and watching them progress in the American ways of life.

In my experience at World Relief, I noticed a few different themes from class. Language is an obvious one, not only the written aspect but the perception and meanings attached to the words of the English language. Mr. and Mrs. Ling showed some struggle with the phonetics of the language, but this was minor compared to their semantic and pragmatic rule understandings. There is a difference between being able to read a sentence and knowing the meaning of the sentence read. They were very good at reading, but not comprehending what they had just read. This also applies not only to written language, but also spoken language. Throughout cultures we create jokes and idioms that are affective if you are proficient in that language, and even then, there can be misinterpretations. It was very encouraging to see Mrs. Ling occasionally catching on to English specific jokes. With language, comes the nonverbal aspect of communication. If they could not tell us the answer to a question, it was very easy to read their nonverbal cues, telling us they were confused or knew the answer but did not know how to communicate it. Similarly, we could tell if they were enjoying our activities or if they were bored by them by facial and even body expressions. Finally, I noticed where they fell in the cultural adaptation process. The Ling family practices the acculturation/integration process where they retain their culture but also accept aspects from our culture. Upon our arrival a mat was placed on the floor to sit on instead of using the furniture as we would in America which is one aspect of their culture they have held on to.

From this experience, I will take with me knowledge and empathy for those of different cultural backgrounds that I had previously lacked. Before my experience with the families of the World Relief program, I was unfortunately one who was less understanding of those who occupy themselves in this country who have not accepted and mastered the American lifestyle whether it be the language or our every day social practices. From working with the Ling family, I realize how challenging it is, not only to leave your home country, but to call a foreign country your new home with a completely different lifestyle and immerse yourself within it. They try so hard to fit in and learn everything there is to know about our culture. This process is very time consuming and frustrating, but can and will be very rewarding for all of the families at World Relief. Their willingness to learn is unbelievable, sometimes I wonder how they do it because of the amount of patience and motivation it entails. These people truly want to live in America to better themselves and I now have so much respect towards them.