I've just learned at the English Table that there're many of Hmong people living in WI and some of them still speak Laos and maintain thier tradition. I's very surprised about that and it's more surprising that my (future) roommate in the fall semester is a Laotian-American!
In Jasmine's class, I learned more about Hmong people and culture and she gave us an assignment expressing my point of view towards the given picture or the poem.
The picture shows us the sufficiency of Hmong people. They enjoy thier simple life, growing plants, rasing domestic animals and even making the traditional clothes. Hmong means free people and their lives are also free, free of any facilitators. And they seem to be happy with their simple life with environmental friendliness.
The poem is pretty interesting for me. The writer can effectively convey his father's (and also the other Hmong's) struggle to be alive and free. There're many difficulties they faced and finally, they can survive in the free land, the United States.
Anyway, the first stanza brings me a question. As I dreamed to be a teacher, I questioned that...can this poem used as one of the material in the class (espacilly in the elementary school)? With the sentence..."We're from an uncivilized world. Laos, it was called"..., students might be instilled the negative thought about Laos and China (as it's mentioned in the history). Is this fair?
So, it's the teacher's role to clarify, I think. Ah, being a teacher's such a tough work..phew!
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