We cannot not communicate...
Having had the opportunity to volunteer in Hong Kong during my gap year to work as a teaching assistant at a school for physically and mentally disabled children, I was filled with excitement and fear at the same time. I'd volunteered and worked with children many times and loved doing so, at the same time though...
...I had not had previous experience of teaching...
...I was taken on the role as a teacher in their minds and yet I was barely older than some of the eldest students I would be teaching...
...and despite being Chinese, I had grown up overseas and could not read or write, or even speak Cantonese very well AND I was not there to teach the children English
I was faced with the dilemma of how I was going to communicate with these children.
While language can often appear to be a barrier when travelling to other countries, it is by no means the only way we communicate - in fact, I quickly learnt you cannot not communicate. Through the way we act, present ourselves and use our body language we can demonstrate more than words may do so...it was exactly through these that I developed the bonds with the children that caused me to experience great reluctance to leave when Summer holidays came, and perhaps the strongest bonds, with a Chinese boy who's deafness had left him with only the choice to learn without language at all, and an Indian boy who's disabilities had left only with the choice to learn Cantonese to gain his learning. I not only quickly learnt sign language but learnt to smile like them in the face of challenges
No comments:
Post a Comment