Wednesday 4 July 2018

Now I know how it feels to be a 'Newcomer' #WCMTUK

"We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give."
Winston Churchill 


As some might know, I was honoured and delighted to have been successful in my application to become a Churchill Fellow for 2018. You can read about that here:https://nosuchthingasbadweather.blogspot.com/2018/04/integration-and-support-in-preschool.html 
I found out back in March and have been planning my study trip for a few months and lo and behold it has actually arrived! I think I kept thinking that I would receive an email to say "Hey, Kierna, we made a mistake, you weren't supposed to be on that list" but to my surprise, that never happened and I found myself planning a 4 week trip for the month of July to Germany and Sweden. 

I arrived in Berlin on Monday the 2nd July and after a brief stop over for the night travelled onto Dresden on the Tuesday for 3 days. I have no German and have actually found it really hard to even learn some basic phrases - I blame BBC4, they haven't had any German programmes on for me to listen to! (In all seriousness, watching Swedish shows has allowed me to at least understand some words in conversations)

Visiting Spanish teachers passed on information on an amazing FREE app called 'Say Hi' which has proved invaluable for email communication and for translating signs or menus but as usual most people can speak beautiful English and it does make it all a lot easier for me. 

Last night I wanted a cup of coffee to round of my long day of travelling and those who know me are aware that I am very fond of my coffee, so imagine my surprise when the lady at the coffee kiosk wouldn't let me have it until I repeated the word 'Schwarz' (Black) a few times for her. I really began to understand how the 'Newcomer' children must feel in school when staff repeat a word several times for them to say when all they want is a yellow crayon! She wasn't being mean, she simply wanted me to be able to order a black coffee the next time I needed to. 

For those who might find themselves saying that those who migrant to new countries need to pick up the local language as quickly as possible, I want to know have they ever spent any time abroad where they don't speak the language. It is isolating and you can't really engage with people the way you want to and you really can't be your true self. I am finding myself smiling a lot at people and nodding and saying the one or two German words I have managed to pick up and now I know a little bit of how some of our migrant parents feel when they need to engage with staff at school.

Over the next 4 weeks I want to research different practices to help migrant families and preschoolers to best feel at ease in a new situations, with a view to being able to bring some ideas back home to share within my own school and the wider community. 





4 comments:

  1. Hi Kierna...
    I know exactly what you mean... I arrived in Sweden half a lifetime ago without any Swedish and had to learn the language here...
    and when you do know the language and communicate that is actually only half the story... there is then the thing of being able to make and understand jokes... that comes a little later...
    I remember in the early days being boring Swedish speaking Suzanne and funny (well at least I thought so) English speaking Suzanne....

    In the last few years I have been trying to pick up Arabic... and decided to do this only verbally and audio... Ie not the writing, just to listen and talk... I picked up a few basics... and forgot them as fast...
    But when I am there I can sort of make sense of some of what is being said, I just can't speak... it is isolating.

    Right now I am trying to learn Greek... as I will be presenting in a conference next April in Athens... and I want to be able to speak with the children when I am there...
    this time I am learning in a different way... with the writing too... and find it REALLY odd... I suddenly learning Greek as two separate languages almost... verbal and written... since it is a totally different alphabet, and for some reason they have decided not to teach the phonetics of it (online course) I am sightlearning words... as the look of the word is not something I can sound out...

    it has been making me think not only about how hard it is to come as a new person to a country... but also as a child to suddenly have to learn a written language... it is soooo different from the spoken... and I think as adults we kind of take it for granted that we can connect the spoken and the written when we see letters connected together as words and sentences...

    yes lots of new insights...

    Looking forward to seeing you on your Swedish leg of your adventure...

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    1. Thanks Suzanne & yes looking forward to catching up again & hearing all about your adventures, both local & abroad.

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  2. Know what you mean Kierna. Am married to a Romanian and next year will be teaching on a job shadowing assignment in a Romanian school, so I have to interact on a daily basis in a language I have never learnt formally. Was very proud yesterday when I completed a series of forms in a Romanian lawyer’s office and she signed a declaration that I had a proficient working language of Romanian. In France migrant children are put into language immersion classes until they can survive in the classroom. Enjoy week 2 in Germany David C-H

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    1. Hello David, what a great experience the job shadow will be (and of course congratulations on your marriage). Interestingly it was the idea of the language immersion classes here in Berlin, that put me on the road to my Churchill Fellowship. When we visited our French partner a few years back they had no such classes & just random newly arrived English pupils who hadn't a word of French sitting quietly at the back of the class! Have a great summer & enjoy your new adventures.

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