After spending my second visit with the children of ñeque mas neque, I was once again overwhelmed with the joy that working with the kids brought me. The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis helps explain my communication with the kids at Neque for several reasons. For instance, I was able to actually communicate with the kids since I can speak Spanish. And because of that, I truly believe that being able to communicate with the kids showed me a form of the culture. For example, today we made crafts with the kids. I was able to help them with their homework, and finally able to play games with them. Each task required me to communicate verbally with the kids. Not only did I communicate with them, but I was able to listen to what the children were saying. It was truly amazing be able to speak with the kids because I could participate verbally in their world. I was able to ask questions about their lives and find out more about the kids. It is fascinating how language can shape culture. Finding out about the kid's lives was just one out of many great ways to discover the rich culture.
Blog Post Sixteen: Effective and Ineffective Communication
A great example of effective communication that I found came from Thea. Thea was communicating with her host mom and mentions: “I have enjoyed hearing about politics and the ways of life from Maria my host mother and would love to learn more from her.” Thea showing interest and engaging within their culture is very effective and can lead to continued effective communication. An example of ineffective communication came from Elizabeth. She mentioned that: “I feel like I respond to my host parents with the same answers all the time. I want to be able to tell them more about myself and let them understand more of who I am.” Ineffective communication is never positive, but thankfully Elizabeth’s was only due to a language barrier and not a form of ethnocentrism. She shows eagerness to communicate effectively as well which is positive. One more example of effective communication comes from Meng during her time at Mitad del Mundo. When she saw the shrunken head she initially felt “a...
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