As usual, kids “get it” and are able to bridge the language gap.
MAKING WEAVING THE MEDIUM of conversation and interest instead of the English language reframes our ideas about language learning and what is effective communication. At the Goat Lady opening and at Glenwood neighborhood's Glenfest, women weavers with very rudimentary English skills were able to interact and engage with visiting Americans and sell their wares.
Goat Lady Dairy's Open Farm was an opportunity for three Montagnard women from the Rhade, Bahnar and Bunong tribes to demonstrate their weaving expertise and to interact with American visitors. One is a master weaver who has been here for many years but had only spoken haltingly and with no confidence. Another arrived in the US about a year ago and has only recently been attending weaving meetings, getting out to join her husband working at Goat Lady and coming to MDA ESOL classes. A third has been here about a year, is a dedicated weaver, and comes to MDA ESOL classes and is a regular at weaving meetings.
What drives these women when they're given a chance to express themselves through their art and other meaningful cultural activities? Below is a photo I snapped of one woman who'd just gotten her loom the day before, happily weaving after having attached the loom to a heavy TV set. For one, these are values they believe and they're confident in. They want to talk about and share them. They want to explain complex processes and problems, designs and ideas. In this context, learning English becomes less of a trial, less of a problem, and less of yet another burden they must assume during their "adjustment" to American life.
Such approaches to ESOL and language acquisition aren't meant to do away with traditional ESOL classrooms. What we're trying to show is that communication is a partnership. If Americans really want refugees like the Montagnards to learn English more quickly, then we should also engage them about their interests and from their perspective. Language is fundamentally about expression. It does not have to be exclusively about filling out job forms and reading traffic signs.
This is not rocket science. Artists and musicians and designers have been communicating across language barriers and different cultures for thousands of years. You could say this is our specialty. Still, it makes you wonder why the arts and cultural pursuits are at the bottom of refugee resettlement concerns.
At the end of the page is a simple reader we created for these women, with pictures and recorded audio for them to use for practice while weaving, washing dishes and working around the house.
No language barrier here.
Setting up in the middle of the sidewalk did not require seeking “permission”
— an almost perpetual state of mind for some refugees who have preferred to avoid
contact with Americans .
When interested people recognize the passions of one another,
they share strong reasons to engage and communicate.
This refugee mom could be doing a lot of other things besides weaving, but
because this is what she's chosen to do, we want to support it and build on her
interest by introducing an English text that reflects her knowledge.
