Blog #5 The Final Day

     Today was our final day with our family. We have grown with them through these last weeks. From the very start was trying to teach a little kid how to talk. Now, its like they have been speaking this language the whole. This just shows us that if you out your mind to learning something you can achieve it and they all did. I am amazed at how much they got to learn in such small amount of time. I hope they will be able to keep up the learning for as long as they will be living here.

      Our on final day we did go over the review of what we have been going over the last weeks. This review was by far the best. When we asked them a question they responded, but before they would look at us and wait for us to say something to help them out. We read some more books to see how well they can still read sentences. This time though we got a little harder level books to test how much they really knew. They did fairly well. I knew it wasn't going to be perfect, but I knew they could look at the letters and try to figure out some of the harder words. This time while they were reading to us, we would stop them and ask them if they knew what some of the words meant or had them rewrite the words on a piece of paper without looking. The reason we changed it up was because we know they can read the words, but they don't know how to spell them all yet or know the meanings. So, I wanted to test them to see how they would understand. The spelling was a little easier than the meaning of the words, but that's typical. When they didn't know the meaning or the spelling we would help out by saying the word symbol by symbol or explain the meaning with hand movements or phrases that they would already know. After the books were over we just asked them a few questions to wrap it up. We just wanted to how there experience was and how they learned from these visits. Wanted to see how they feel now after learning a wide range of words, body parts, sentences, and objects. How comfortable they felt now to go talk to people in our language. So, just a big over view of all of our visits into one.

   We learned to teach the family in a non-verbal and verbal ways. Non-verbal was used when they didn't know what an object was. For example a tree, we would use our arms to demonstrate a tree and then they would understand. If they would look confused on what we were trying to say we would use body movements or us pointing at the things they didn't know. Verbal came into play when they couldn't say the words out loud or they were struggling. We would pronounce them out loud or try to spell the word out. When we would have to spell it out we would sound each letter and explain what letter it was. This was more action with our talking and for them to hear the words form someone else.

   My experience from being with the family these weeks have been a changing experience. I never had the thought that people were going through these types of situations. What i mean is the struggle to learn how to speak and how there country is different from ours. I had a some what idea but never actually took into thought. I'm a person that needs to see it to believe and I now believe it. I'm just happy that i made a difference in this family life even though it was a short amount of time.Just knowing that there that much closer to being part of an American culture. Now, there struggle wont be so much on how to speak or hear English , but maybe other situations. I'm glad that the family has learned what they learned, but I hope for the best for them in the future.

Blog #4 Heading Down the Road

Yesterday was another eventful day at the Nepal family household. We went over our names one more time, read some books, and went over some body parts. I know this seems like we already did this last time, which we kind have did. The thing that was different this was we were reviewing what they have remembered from the past few weeks. Its like teaching a baby how to talk, if you don't keep going over it they will take long to learn or never learn it. I want this family to be able to understand by hearing and talking these news words or sayings, so eventually it will stick with them.

First thing we went over was our names again. I know we have done this every week, but they have improved so much by remembering our groups name. This isn't by only saying it, but we had them write it out to. Having them write our names down was for them to see the letters and pronounce it out. They did a fistulous job. Next, we split the family up into groups again, so we could work more one on one if we could. I once again had the children. I had them read to me The Fox with the Sock. This is a Dr. Suess book. The daughter did an excellent job with pronouncing her words a lot. The younger ones just liked pointing at all the pictures and pointing out different objects. When the book was over I had the daughter go over her body parts with me again. She did fairly well for just learning them not to long ago. She just struggle a little with the arm, but other than that she got them down. To really test her I had her write them out to see if she remembered how to spell them. This was a bit harder but she did do it.

All in all, this day was to be a review day with the family. I think they did a good job and they are working really hard to improve there English. The children are just getting better day by day by going to school and learning there and by us coming once a week to get a one on one with different subjects of English. The adults are really committed to learning as much as they can since they have started so late in there life, its a little difficult. They all take there time to pronounce a word out if they don't know or they ask a lot questions if they don't know something. This is a good thing to have, so if they don't know something at work or school they will hopefully ask and get an answer.

Pre-Excitment and Nervousness

So, today we had to pick what group we wanted to go to. I have chosen to pick a family to help learn. My group has emailed Kelly to let her know we would be volunteering for her. She responded back letting us know some what a description of our family we would be working with. In this description it included the family names, how old they were, and how many there were. At this point I am ready the description and I was a little nervous. I love helping anyone I can no matter what it is. So, to me this is a big step in me helping a family that barely knows English.

The more I keep reading over this email and the days are getting closer, I just kept feeling these butterflies in my stomach. I didn't know what to expect or how they would react. I had no clue how much English they actually knew or the children. I know how to help people in a way so they are comfortable and so i wanted to do that for them. As the days are winding down, i just kept having that feeling. Then the day came and i just felt all these nerves come out of know where. Once we got to the door and they didn't answer I had the feeling of leaving. The reason is because I thought they were scared of us or didn't know what to do. Once Kelly arrived everything ran smoothly. After I got comfortable it was a lot of. I'm excited to see what the rest of our work service hours have for us.

Blog #3 Different Reactions

My second week of going to our family was much like the first week, but a little different. We knocked on the door and they came to the door this time. Last time they wouldn't answer and we stood outside for like 15 minutes. We started off again by going around saying our names again. It was a little shaky for them and for us too. They had troubles with my name and Austin's name. We mostly had troubles with the older families names because there were so many the first time we went. When they would get one wrong we would pronounce the name slowly so they could here all the letters. We went over this for a good 10 minutes.

After that we all split up and took some of the family in different parts of the apartment to work with them in small groups. I had the children, which we read a book. I had the youngest niece point out the different pictures that she learned the time before just to see how much she remembered. She pointed out different pictures that I didn't think she would know. The daughter can read pretty well. The bigger words she does have troubles pronouncing, but overall she reads like a piece of cake. She can point to everything I ask her to point to and understands me when she reads a word wrong. She is very helpful with helping the other family members when they don't know something. Towards the end of the book we were reading the dad's brother came over and helped the girls out with some of the pictures and listened to her read. After our book was done I had the daughter go over some of the human parts. I first asked her if she knew any and she didn't. We just went over the basics like arm, wrist, shoulder, and all the face parts. She could remember them after we went over them and pointed to each part. Then I would ask her to point to a part and she would just think for a second then point to the part. Once I thought she had it down I had her write each part down. I had her do this because I wanted her to see the word and be able to point to each part. She could spell most of them but the ones she did get wrong i had her respell three times, so she could see the right spelling. When we were done with that I asked her to practice these all week, so she can get those memorized in case someone asked where a part was.

As I was helping the girls out I was still observing the rest of the family and the our group. I just wanted to see how well they were all coming along. The son was having some troubles remembering the parts of the body, especially the elbow and has a little trouble with reading, but all it takes is practice. The mother is learning fairly quick on her reading. When I listened to her at the beginning of her book she was have troubles with some simple words like with, what, and the. Towards the end she was understanding those words and picking up some others. The dad is just getting better every time we go. He is just positive about learning all these new English words and pictures. As soon as we go he s ready to go and uses words form last time. So, I know he practices all week and helps that he got a job, so he can use all the terms with his work people.

It's just amazing to see how far along this family has come just in three weeks. When we first came some had no idea what a tree was and now they know there outside areas, kitchen, greetings, and colors. They have just put so much effort into learning that they will come along way. The children did know a lot more than the adults, but I think thats because they want to teach them now before it gets to hard. The thing I will always remember is what the dad said " In Nepal they don't teach us English, that's why we wanted to come here." Also, they are still trying to get one more family member to come Nepal.

Blog #2

The last two visits to our family have been accomplishing. The whole family is learning so much. I've notice the children know more English than the older adults. I found out that the adults don't know much English is because they don't learn English in there country. They have encountered learning body parts, animals, colors, numbers, outside names, and names. Since the first visit they can recall most of what we taught them the first time. The dad (Ghor) is really into learning our language and is putting a lot of effort in. The children  are learning a little bit more advanced of what they already know. For the future i'm having the daughter practice pointing and writing out the body parts we went over for today. For the rest of the family they practice saying and pointing at things when they see it or hear it. By learning these things will help them in the future if a bone breaks or they get a job.

How service relates to learning

I believe service relates to learning by teaching new skills that people don't have. What I am referring to is if we didn't do service work how would we interact with people or learn about new cultures? Service is a way to get people out of there comfort zone and to learn different ways to interact.

Chapter 2: Effects of Communication