Connecting Cultures.
Home culture connects with community culture. Classroom cultures connect with home culture. School cultures connect with community culture. It is like a circle. This connection expands.
The first year I had the dumpling-making event at school. The teachers were supportive and the kids were excited. Then, a teacher came to me and told me that the cafeteria might not work with the hours we needed for the event.
I went to see the cafeteria manager with the teacher and hoped to extend the kitchen hours for this event so the kids could try the freshly cooked dumplings at school. The person in charge was not so excited about the idea. “You need to finish at 2:00 pm and we have to close the kitchen.” On the day of the event, I had parents with all kinds of cultural heritage join us. Grandparents showed up, too.
Parents and grandparents with Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese, or Thai cultural heritage were busy helping the kids and other parents pinch and shape their dumplings. Kids were having such a good time.
I also had European parents helping out with dumpling-making. “Pierogi,” one mom said, “this is just like Pierogi we make at home in Eastern Europe.” Then, the other one said, “Ravioli, Tortellini, our version of dumplings.”
The school kitchen manager didn’t shut down the operation even it was after 2pm. We had her join the event. Some grandparents went to the kitchen and helped. The manager cooked the dumplings for all of us.
And, we gave her our thanks for being so generous with us and let us using the cafeteria kitchen for cooking dumplings after hours.
She ate the first dumplings with the first group of kids. Over two hundred people were packed in the cafeteria. Students, teachers, parents, grandparents, and cultural masters who I invited to demonstrate calligraphy for the kids were chatting, learning and exploring Chinese culture.
Connecting cultures with your special hometown dish, craft, music, stories, books, dance,…etc.
People are waiting for us to make the first move. Friends are looking forward to knowing more about your cultural festival celebration at home. Teachers will be thrilled if you make a trip to the classroom and share your stories about your home town, the festivals that fascinated you when you grew up, and craft projects that kids have never seen before.
When we share we connect with our kids and their friends. Sharing the stories about making Chinese dumplings and eating them with parents, grandparents, teachers, and kids at school is much more fun than having dumplings at home by ourselves.
With hands-on, interactive, and engaging activity like this, kids learn so much about the information you want to share with them.
Connecting cultures and learning with five senses is for kids of all ages.
Is your child learning Chinese? A new language or your heritage language?
Language is a part of a culture. When you connect the new language with the community culture the learning goes further. How about connecting your heritage culture with the community culture? It will make your child proud to see her heritage in public.
Language takes us on a journey. A journey to connect with others and to learn more about ourselves.
What book you are planning to read to your child’s class about your culture this month?
image by Mark
