In August 14, 1983 I was born in Fresno, California. My family consists of my parents Xao Chang and Mao Yang, three sisters Youa, Yer and Vicky, and three brothers Bee, Davis and Doua. My parents would often tell me their stories of living in Laos before they immigrated to the United States in the late 1970s as Hmong refugees after the Secret War against the Pathet Lao. My external influence that I feel that is an important strength is my culture. What I love most about my culture is the story of the Hmong history. Although the Hmong have lost most of it’s written records about our history years ago and was only introduced to literacy in the 1950s. The information we know and have now is because of the many generations of Hmong individuals who kept it alive through storytelling. (Duffy, 2007). I also love the strong family values my culture has; to us, family is everything. My parents often told my siblings and I the stories of their lives and how they believe that they …show more content…
wouldn’t have been able to survive in Laos, Thailand, or in the United States without their families. My dad, for instance became an orphan when all his family members lost their lives because of the war. Thus, his lonely childhood stories have a great impact on my family. Although many Hmong families who may share similar experiences or have different reasons of their own, family in our culture is valuable. Growing up, I lived in a close-knit community where the majority of the families around me were Hmong families. Therefore, I didn’t know or understand what racism, discrimination, and stereotypes was until I was in school and was exposed to other cultural groups, which resulted in my experience of childhood bullying. Students from my elementary school made comments that my family and I ate dogs and cats, made fun of my Asian eyes, and mocked my language by saying ching chong over and over again, even though I had clearly stated that I was Hmong and not Chinese. As the years went by, the bullying got worse when students would tell me that I was a nobody and that Hmong people sucked because we didn’t have a country of our own. “Middle childhood a time for developing greater abilities to define self and emotion, Rogers, 2010, p. 231). The personality development of my middle childhood was that my culture sucked and that I was a nobody, being a young and naive girl at the time, I choose to distance myself from my own heritage. I was tired of having to hear the negativity from others; I started to distance myself from my own heritage because I wanted to be accepted by society. I was twelve years old when I last wore my mom’s handmade traditional Hmong clothes.
Which brought a lot of hurt and disappointment to my mom because I was refusing to wear the handmade traditional Hmong clothing my mom worked all year to make for me personally. According to Erikson’s Theory of Psychosocial Development State 5: Identity vs Identity “Adolescence are exploring who they are and developing their sense of identity (Rogers 2010, p. 83”). I feel has made an important contribution challenge to who I am today because I refused to acknowledge my heritage. The next year, I started to refuse to speak Hmong. Several years later, I hated myself because of my heritage. At the time, I wanted to feel equal and not be outcast by my peers because of the way I talked, my physical appearances, and or my family’s background. During my high school, I was unwanted by other Hmong students. They called me a disgrace to my heritage because they consider me white washed since I chose to not speak
Hmong. Subsequently, I started feeling worthless because other cultural groups and now my own cultural group were both rejecting me. However, my choice to stop speaking the Hmong language had a greater impact on my relationship with my parents. Since my parents only spoke Hmong, my choice caused a drift in our relationship. As a result, when I reflect back on the choices I have made. In the biological level I am a healthy individual. I exercise regularly and eat healthy food, and decrease stress in my life. Exercise is important for both my physical and mental well-being. Staying physically active such as walking, swimming and dancing will help improve my health and keep me strong and fit to keep doing things. Stress is unhealthy. My solution to alleviate stress is by meditation to help improve focus, concentration and relaxation. Time management is important and keeping a calendar is beneficial with my schedule. I spend my leisure time by playing games or watching television with my children. I also like to cook meals on the weekends for my family and my sons enjoy helping me. We go on family trips and enjoy hiking. This helps us relax and enjoy nature. My parents would emphasize the importance of school and getting a bachelor degree. My parents have no education, do not speak English and had little work experience. Their hopes are that their children would go to school and get an education. They want their children to be the best they could, so they eventually would fit into the American culture. They were afraid that if their children didn’t obtain a bachelor degree, then we would end up in the same socio-economic like them.
What are the most important aspects of Hmong culture? What do the Hmong consider their most important duties and obligations? How did they affect the Hmong’s transition to the United States?
In The Latehomecomer, by Kao Kalia Yang shares her story and the story of her family’s search for a home and identity. Her family’s story voices the story of the Hmong people and their plight. From every stage of their journey, from the mountainous jungles of Southeast Asia to the freezing winter of Minnesota, Yang and the Hmong were compelled to redefine their identity, willingly or unwillingly. While growing up, Yang’s parents would often ask her, “’What are you?’ and the right answer was always, ‘I am Hmong.’” (Yang, 1) For “Hmong” to be the right answer, then what does it mean to be “Hmong”? From the personal story shared by Yang, and the universal story of the Hmong people, the Hmong identity cannot be contained in
Throughout ancient history, many indigenous tribes and cultures have shown a common trait of being hunter/gatherer societies, relying solely on what nature had to offer. The geographical location influenced all aspects of tribal life including, spirituality, healing philosophy and healing practices. Despite vast differences in the geographical location, reports show various similarities relating to the spirituality, healing philosophy and healing practices of indigenous tribal cultures.
The Hmong people, an Asian ethnic group from the mountainous regions of China, Vietnam and Laos, greatly value their culture and traditions. The film “The Split Horn: Life of a Hmong Shaman in America” documents the seventeen year journey of the Hmong Shaman, Paja Thao and his family from the mountains of Laos to the heartland of America. This film shows the struggle of Paja Thao to maintain their 5000 year-old shamanic traditions as his children embrace the American culture. Moreover, the film shows that one of the major problems refugees like Paja Thao and his family face upon their arrival to the United States is conflict with the American medical system. Despite the dominant biomedical model of health, the film “The Split Horn” shows that
Identity is 'how you view yourself and your life.'; (p. 12 Knots in a String.) Your identity helps you determine where you think you fit in, in your life. It is 'a rich complexity of images, ideas and associations.';(p. 12 Knots in a String.) It is given that as we go through our lives and encounter different experiences our identity of yourselves and where we belong may change. As this happens we may gain or relinquish new values and from this identity and image our influenced. 'A bad self-image and low self-esteem may form part of identity?but often the cause is not a loss of identity itself so much as a loss of belonging.'; Social psychologists suggest that identity is closely related to our culture. Native people today have been faced with this challenge against their identity as they are increasingly faced with a non-native society. I will prove that the play The Rez Sisters showed this loss of identity and loss of belonging. When a native person leaves the reservation to go and start a new life in a city they are forced to adapt to a lifestyle they are not accustomed to. They do not feel as though they fit in or belong to any particular culture. They are faced with extreme racism and stereotypes from other people in the nonreservational society.
The Hmong culture is firmly rooted in their spiritual belief of animism, ancestral worship and reincarnation. These beliefs connect them to their sense of health and well-being. They view illness as having either a natural or a spiritual cause. A spiritual cause results in a “loss of souls” or is an action or misdeed that may have offended an ancestor’s spirit (California Department of Health Services, 2004, Purnell, 2013, p. 317). The soul escapes the body and may not be able to find its way back home. The Hmong also believe that a combination of natural and supernatural cause’s results in illness, and spells or curses, violation of taboos, accidents, fright, and infectious disease are other causes for illness (Centers for Disease Control
I wanted to wear brand clothes/shoes they did, I wanted to do my hair like them, and make good grades like them. I wanted to fit in. My cultural identify took a back seat. But it was not long before I felt black and white did not mix. I must have heard too many comments asking to speak Haitian or I do not look Haitian, but more than that, I am black, so I always had to answer question about my hair or why my nose is big, and that I talked white. This feeling carried on to high school because the questions never went away and the distance between me and them grew larger. There was not much action my family could take for those moments in my life, but shared their encounters or conversations to show me I was not alone in dealing with people of other background. I surrounded myself with less white people and more people of color and today, not much has
The Asian American history is the history of the ethnic and racial groups in the United States who are of Asian descent. Spickard (2007) shows that the "'Asian American' was an idea created in the 1960s to bring together the Chinese, Japanese, and Filipino Americans for a strategic and political purposes.
The Hmong Culture of South Asia is a very interesting ethnic group. Between 300,000 to 600,000 Hmong live in Southeast Asian countries, such as Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, and Myanmar. About 8 million more live in the southern provinces of China. Since the Vietnam War ended in 1975, Hmong refugees from Southeast Asia have settled in Australia, France, Canada, and the United States. The largest Hmong refugee community lives in the United States with a population of about 110,000. The U.S. Department of state has tried to spread Hmong refugees out across the country to reduce the impact on any one region. Because Hmong families tend to be large in numbers, the community grows rapidly.
I am a Korean and I am proud to classify myself as a Korean; however, sometimes it can be hard. When I joined Kindergarten, I remember the school staff trying to put me into a special program because they did not think I was capable of speaking English. At first, I did not feel that happy that they quickly assumed I was not able to reach the educational level like the other kids. However, then I realized they recommended the program to me to ensure that I stayed at the level and would not fall behind. Although, the program was recommended to help me, I did not want to learn without my friends, I did not want to get extra help, and I did not want to be treated differently. Therefore, I tried harder in and out of school; I would go home each day and do practice workbooks and study. Thus, leading me to go to a magnet school. Although, I was able to overcome this barrier in Kindergarten, in high school it became harder. I remember people always commenting that I was a stereotypical asian and that I needed to loosen up. Although these comments do not sound that bad, it really hit the spot on me. After hearing all these comments, I immediately wanted to stop trying in school because I did not want people to think that I was a “buzzkill” at school. Also, due to my race, I felt that people had the
Having a wife is an important aspect in life because she is someone who you can have a physical, spiritual, and emotional bond and it’s when “two becomes one.” She’s your life partner, teammate and someone who should be there with you as you move through obstacles in life. Every culture and ethnicity have different views on what a wife should be and the Hmong wife (niam tsev) is certainly different. There are guidelines that show how a Hmong wife should behave. (See Figure) The Hmong wife is seen as someone who is responsible for all the home duties and basically cater to her husband. I believe that living in America, things are a bit different now. Whether it’s doing chores around the house, babysitting or cooking; both should be responsible for these duties. Just
The Polynesian peoples have a lifestyle quite different than that of any other culture, as living on an island requires a level of flexible adaptability in order to cope with such a different, sometimes difficult environment. We see the way diverse cultures build their lives around their circumstances and how they respect them in their cultural myths and stories. The Polynesian legends emphasize the physical environment that they live in. They are quite different than any other region in the world, but the beauty and individuality of the Polynesian culture is prominent as seen in their mythology.
In this paper, I will discuss my interview I conducted with a Hmong social worker. I will discuss the social worker background covering of her current employment, the length of employment, and position responsibilities. Addition, I will discuss the social worker prior work experience, challenges with the position and agency, and improvement as a social worker. Moreover, I will discuss the social worker experience of services with Hmong, Caucasian, and people of color clients. Lastly, I will conclude with the social worker recommendations to prepare me as a future social worker and correlate to my overall interview experience.
Hawaii has a diverse culture where it is expressed through art, music, language, dance, theater, cuisine, film, and multiple festivals. Its culture and traditions reflect the land’s beauty. Hula is the traditional dance of Hawaii and is rooted to the religion of the natives that live there. It was believed it a god or goddess who performed the first hula and because of that, the dance is considered as a sacred ritual more than a form of entertainment. Ancient Hawaiian folk music were used for a multitude of purposes, a few examples would be to give praise to the gods and goddesses or telling mythological stories. Prior to The music was often accompanied with festivals, games, and other events.
Biological influences combined with societal and social expectations contribute to how well people learn to adapt to their environments (2013). According to Erikson, there are eight stages of development. Within these states, there are different psychological, emotional and cognitive tasks. In order to adjust, individuals must learn to develop these tasks. During adolescence, Erikson states that each person needs to navigate through the development task of ‘‘Identity vs. Identity confusion ’’ (2013). He defined this task by stating that adolescent children must learn to develop a sense of self and establish independence. Prior to this stage of development, a person’s parents largely influence their identity. In this stage the adolescent children begin to explore and develop their identity outside of their parents’ influence (Hill, Bromell, Tyson, & Flint, 2007). Adolescents are generally more egocentric at this stage and have an increased sense of self-consciousness. They also have a strong desire to conform to peer influence and develop concerns regarding their appearance. They develop concern about their level of competence in relation to their peer group as well. As peer influence increases, during this stage, parental influence decreases (Ashford & LeCroy, 2013; Hill et. al, 2007). Conflict generally increases between parent and child at this stage of development (2007).