Comments | gypsy1969: Attention Minn. LJ friends...

gypsy1969

Attention Minn. LJ friends...

Jul 08, 2009 17:10

I am doing a project for my ESL/ELL/ENL (English as a New Language) class on Somali culture and language for teachers of ELL. (It's due Monday.) I have learned from my research that Minneapolis has a large population of Somali refugees and wondered if any of you have anecdotal stories that might be of general interest that you could write to me ( Read more... )

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elisem July 9 2009, 01:58:44 UTC

I can leave a pointer for you in my LJ, if you like. I have a story but am too exhausted to type it just now, alas ( ... )

elisem July 9 2009, 02:07:45 UTC

P.S. One thing I remember most about him is that he was very patient and polite when I explained that I am hard of hearing, and he was willing to repeat things slowly until I understood him. He didn't have English words for everything he wanted to say, and I didn't always understand the pronunciation of the English words he did have, but between the two of us, we managed. Also, I think there was some not-English in the thank you phone call. It sounded like it might have been something formal that one says when thanking somebody, or maybe it was something about the blessings. In any case, that part was very happy, and I was glad to get it, even if I didn't understand the words. The emotion came through just fine.

gypsy1969 July 9 2009, 12:40:04 UTC

Thank you. I hope everything goes well for your upcoming operation. I will be praying for your speedy recovery!

mrissa July 9 2009, 02:14:58 UTC

When I could still walk, I was out walking my dog (who is 11 or 12 pounds and very good-natured). She went frolicking up to one of our Somali neighbors, and as I was pulling the dog back a little, I said, "Oh, she thinks you're her new best friend!" The woman said, "She will be friend with black woman?" It just about broke my heart. I said, "She doesn't care what color you are. She has friends of every color. She just cares if you're nice to her, and she'll be nice to you." So the Somali woman put her hand down to let Ista sniff it and she smiled at me and I smiled at her.

gypsy1969 July 9 2009, 12:39:19 UTC

Thank you for your story. It is so awful that she has experienced this in her time here and it is wonderful that you let her know that not everyone is this way.

asakiyume July 9 2009, 17:08:23 UTC

That's a sad story--but with a happy ending...

(and hello gypsy1969--I'm visiting here from elisem's blog, though, alas, I have no good story of my own to help you with... but I'm interested in learning more about Somalia and Somali culture, so I thought I'd stop by...)

Hello gypsy1969 July 10 2009, 00:00:06 UTC

Nice to make your acquaintance. I looked at your journal and it is lovely. You would love the woods behind my home. We also have a lot in common. (I have more things that I love than I can list on my page.)

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naomikritzer July 9 2009, 02:33:05 UTC

My daughter's school is 10-15% Somali. Also, I live adjacent to a neighborhood with a very high Somali population, so I have a lot of random anecdotes ( ... )

naomikritzer July 9 2009, 02:49:00 UTC

8. Back in 2001, when R.T. Rybak was first running for mayor, he had a ton of Somali volunteers. Most were relatively recent arrivals who couldn't vote yet because they were not yet citizens; they volunteered for his campaign because they were SO INCREDIBLY EXCITED to be living in a democracy with functioning elections and they just couldn't wait to participate ( ... )

naomikritzer July 9 2009, 03:00:53 UTC

12. There is a library on Franklin Ave, right across from the Aldi. It's the only library I've seen that has an actual line outside at opening time, and the patrons are heavily Somali. If educational resources are available, Somalis will use them ( ... )

gypsy1969 July 9 2009, 12:38:28 UTC

Thank you so much this is a great help, and if anyone else has stories I'd love to hear them!

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haddayr July 9 2009, 16:13:52 UTC

My neighbors are Somali, and many of Arie's classmates are Somali. I have had too many interactions to sum up here; I will try to focus on things that maybe say somethign about the culture ( ... )

naomikritzer July 10 2009, 00:10:53 UTC

When I volunteered in Molly's class this past year, I spent a lot of time reading with one Somali boy. He would indignantly refuse to read any of the books about anthropomorphized dogs because he doesn't LIKE dogs because he is MUSLIM and dogs are UNCLEAN. He made a big deal out of this. I am pretty sure it was largely a delaying tactic, but I made an effort to choose books with anthropomorphized cats, instead. (He liked cats just fine and would usually try to change the subject to tell me about his cats / ask me about my cats / avoid reading in favor of a cat conversation.)

Incidentally, there are a hell of a lot of children's books out there about anthropomorphized dogs and not nearly enough about cats.

haddayr July 10 2009, 00:46:19 UTC

HAH.

wow gypsy1969 July 10 2009, 00:10:58 UTC

Thank you. My professor says that many ESL children are misdiagnosed as Special Educ.due to their apparent language "lags". Many U.S. teachers don't understand the differences between social language and academic language and think that children who have social language should also have academic language and that this is most often not the case. This difference causes the teachers to think these students are developmentally delayed or that they have some sort of learning disability.

I'm also wondering if there is some sort of culture difference which may cause this autism diagnosis. (I also have a hypothesis about the incidence of ADHD/ADD in SF fandom, but I won't go into that.)

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