On Tuesday nights I go tutor Somalians. I do it through an organization called SALT. I think it stands for Somali Adult Literacy Training. I'm doing it through my Cultural Communication class. Well, we're required to do it for class. By the end of the semester I will have over twenty-four hours under my belt so, technically speaking, I will have spent one day with a person from another culture.
If you want to get technical, we spend every day with a person from another culture. At least this is what I learned in my class and have observed since then. For example, go to taco night and see who orders a hard shell and who orders a soft shell. I grew up always having soft shell while my roommate grew up always having hard shell. Cultural/Experiential difference. Another example, have macaroni and cheese and ask people what they usually put on their "mac & cheese." I grew up always having ketchup available. I found out early in my college career that this is super weird. Others think putting ketchup on eggs is normal while I think it is disgusting (sorry mom). Others think putting ham in their "mac & cheese" is weird. Again, cultural differences.
So to get more technical I am revising "The List." I am changing it from "spend an entire day with a person from another culture" to "spend an entire day with a person from a different ethnicity."
Now, you could probably get technical about that one too but let's just pretend we won't. I blame on my technicality on my other class, which is Media Law. Hooray for "legal-eeze" language!
Now, I've only been there once, and tonight will be my second time, so I cannot give a huge amount of detail on how things work. So, I will just share my experience from my first time there.
The first fifteen to twenty minutes was "training" and welcoming. I met some regulars who were my age, and cool. There was Amanda, who knits, and Sarah, who lives in the inner-city for outreach and missions. There were more but these two seemed like the regulars.
I mostly stood by them, because I was nervous and didn't know what else to do. The Somalians were already having class but for break they came in and had tea. The regulars sat and talked with them while I just kind of stood there, not knowing what to do. Sarah introduced me to some of them and I shook one of their hands. I was told not to initiate a handshake unless they initiate it first. So I just smiled and stood there.
There are three levels of tutoring. I was with the middle group, where they know basic sentences and that is about it.
Right as I was about to follow Amanda and help her tutor the middle group it was sunset. Because the majority of the Somalians are Muslim they pray five times a day and sunset is one of those times. So a little fifteen minute break and then the tutoring got started.
I helped Amanda teach three men about maps and directions. I taught left, right, and straight. I'm not sure they caught on but I tried. We worked on spelling and pronunciation also. About five minutes in I was so grateful I learned English. English is such a hard language! I was trying to make the sounds for the word "bus" and he kept spelling it "bas." It was probably because I kept going, "Ba, Ba, Ba" for the letter "B" and then "Uh, Uh Uh" for "U." No matter how I tried it kept coming off like it should be spelled "Bas." So, I'm sure I'll get better at it. Don't even get me started on the word, "avenue."
Overall, it was a good experience. Uplifting. Enlightening. Encouraging. Beautiful. I felt that I wasn't doing it out of pity, out of my class requirement, but because I sincerely wanted to help, to serve, someone who wanted it.
I'm sure I'll post more on this later. The stories will surely come up, not that I'm expecting anything.
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