Well, last night we got another different viewpoint on the Hmong culture.For this week we had 3 CSP students as our guest speakers. Xang Lee, PaHoua Yang and Xia Yang all spoke with us for about 2 hours. We covered everything from their Past in Thailand, coming to America and their life now. It was very interesting to see our own peers up there in front of the class room. For me, it made the experiences much more real. All three were born in refugee camps in Thailand and immigrated from those at various points. They discussed nearly everything in those two hours! Xia learned what exactly a placenta is as we learned about the different cultural practices of the Hmong.We learned from first-hand experiences the gender division within the culture and the different practices of their religion. We even discussed a previous assignment, Gran Torino.
The way that this discussion was carried out really changed my perspective on the Hmong culture. With every other speaker we have had, it felt like we were learning something completely foreign to us. As I heard people my own age speak of their lives in refugee camps and travel to america, all the stories seemed so much more relatable. Of all the mediums we have had to learn about the culture, this has by far been my favorite. I loved watching the Hmong culture come out between the three of them as they spoke. None of them them had been trained to come speak to us, so all they had to share with us were their real- life experiences. For that reason, these three speakers have by far been my favorite.
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