The country I selected was Thailand
The first thing that I will do is learn which ethnicity
their family identifies with, because they have 5 major ones in Thailand.
The next thing is to see what the families religious beliefs
are, because in order to serve them any challenging situations they may need to
seek spiritual guidance.
Another thing that I will do is to see what type of
lifestyle they are living currently. See if they are in poverty to see ways in
which Incan better meet their needs.
The next thing I will find out about their culture is how their
family dynamics are and see who is in charge of making decisions.
The final aspect that I will examine is culture customs that
might be different here, to be cautious in not offending them.
I feel
the combination of these tactics will help me serve the family here in my city.
I want the family to feel safe, comfortable and respected. People are easy to
serve and assist when they feel the person that is doing so has their best
interest and truly shows concern or interest in helping you. The family will
still more than likely face barriers during their transition, but if I can
assist by taking away a lot of the unfamiliarity this will make it easier. I
want to try and remove the barriers and replace with solutions
Angelika,
ReplyDeleteI liked how you said that you wanted to remove the barriers and replace with solutions. It shows your openness and willingness to help the family. I also choose to research what kind of lifestyle that the family is currently living. I think this is important to know how to proceed forward with the family. For example if they were living in poverty, have a variety of resources ready to share with the family in case they needed/wanted the help. Again it is important to research the culture to see the best way to approach a situation like this in order not to offend anyone. Thank you for sharing and good ideas to use with a family from an unfamiliar country.
Myra
Angelika,
ReplyDeleteGreat post ! You made a great point when you said you would want to see what the families religious beliefs are. I agree that in order to serve them in challenging situations they may need to seek spiritual guidance and by knowing their religious beliefs we can better assist them in this area.
These are all great tactics to make the family feel welcomed. I didn't think of asking the family what their economic status is. That is a wonderful idea so you are able to better assist and guide them if they are inquiring more assistance and support. Knowing your community resources is so important while working with families.
ReplyDeleteHi Angelika,
ReplyDeleteI love that in your post this week you were so passionate about knowing as much as you could about the new family you were to care for and educate. It was very important that you did research to learn about both the family ethnicity and religion and did not just lump everyone from Thailand into one group of people. Before your post, I did not realize that there were so many different ethnicities from Thailand. My favorite part of your preparing for this family is being aware of their family and cultural customs as to not offend them. In my preparation for my Ojibwa student I learned that often children will not look an “elder” in the eyes as a sign of respect. This would be very important to know and understand as an educator so that I would know not to force eye contact.
Thanks so much for sharing your new knowledge about families from Thailand!
Rhiannon