| May Choua Thao Teaching Hmong culture to Hmong youth by Heidi M. Pascual |
| goose pimples she experienced when she heard the frequent drumming for funerals in the refugee camps. "As a kid, I was very scared," May Choua Thao said of the Hmong ritual for the dead. "I wondered why people were dying all the time. I thought that Hmong refugees were dying because of sickness." But of course there were other reasons beyond the comprehension of a child. The uncertainty of the future forced many Hmong refugees to relocate their families outside Thailand. It was a matter of life and death for most of them. While many sought refuge in the United States, Thao's father decided to take his family to France. "My great grandfather used to work for the French in Laos," Thao narrated. "He wanted to go to France, thinking that he would have more chances there. In the Hmong culture, you have to have your sons with you. He had three sons, the oldest one was left in Laos (my grandfather), and the other one was in another refugee camp. He has a younger son but he was about my age too. So that came up to my father being the oldest 'son.' So we went with my great grandfather to France." Thao's family struggled like any new immigrant, moving from one city to another to find better paying jobs. But the bond of the Hmong people, whether or not in another land, made the experience more bearable. "One thing about the Hmong people is that we like to live together, so we went to a 'center,' she said of a place that she compared to a refugee camp in Thailand. "That was a medium-sized city where a lot of Hmong people lived." Thao, her siblings, and her parents all went to school in France. She lived there for 11 years and has fond memories of her school teachers. "We were lucky when we were in that small town; teachers were pretty good," she said. "They took us under their wings. For the older kids, me and my uncles, they would pick us up after school and they gave us extra tutorial lessons, so that was good." Her positive experience with her French teachers perhaps influenced Thao to become a teacher too. But it would seem that France wasn't the place for her. After a lengthy journey that took Thao to Canada and then to the U.S., she landed in Sheboygan, Wis., to reunite with relatives who earlier chose the United States for their new home. "My great grandfather passed away in 1984, so we decided to come here," Thao recalled. "Immigration was very difficult, so I understand the situation of immigrants here. I first came on a visitor's visa." With a work permit, Thao took a job as a bilingual specialist in the Sheboygan School District. Although not sure whether teaching was her dream career, Thao said that her first job in Sheboygan paved the path for her. "Being a bilingual specialist, I supported students with translation and their homework," she recalled. "I was working under an English as a Second Language program (ESL)." After she got married, Thao moved to Madison. In Madison, Thao was hired by the Madison Metropolitan School District (MMSD) as a bilingual resource specialist while completing her studies at Edgewood College. "The DPI offered a program called 'SWEET' that helped bilingual resource staff like me to become a teacher," she said. "I took that grant and later went to UW-Whitewater and got certified in three areas: French, ESL, and bilingual." Influx of Hmong students at East High School In 2006, Thao accepted a full-time ESL teaching position at East High School. "It was a little bit of everything," she said. "The new Hmong refugees' skills are so low that we started to create some classes to help them. I helped them with their homework, study skills, then beginning Math, Social Studies, Reading or Literacy. This year, in addition to those, I'm teaching a writing class and two Hmong for Hmong Speakers classes." Hmong for Hmong Speakers Class The Hmong for Hmong Speakers class is the first of its kind in a Madison high school. Thao credits East High School ESL Counselor Joe Nigh for initiating it, recognizing that there is a growing number of Hmong students at East. She said she was lucky to be there at the right time and place. "I believe that the Hmong students wanted to have a Hmong class, but they don't have someone there," Thao said. "Joe Nigh had been wanting to have a Hmong class, so when I came last year, he asked me whether I'd like to teach that class and see if the students would enroll. So I said, 'OK, let's give it a try. Let's advertise and see if students will enroll; and to our surprise, there were several students who enrolled. It was supposed to be only one class, but because of the number of enrollment, we now have two sections." Thao explained how a two-person team thought of the course content. "This past summer, Choua Her (who works for MMSD-downtown) and I developed a curriculum that will help Hmong students read and write in Hmong and learn about the Hmong culture and history," Thao said. "Most of the students were born here and are not very fluent in Hmong. But we have a good balance because of the newcomers. I call half of the Hmong class 'American Hmong kids.' Because we don't have a lot of materials written in Hmong, they learn from each other. Most of our materials are written in English. So what we did for the historical and cultural part, we read first, or have the Hmong students who were born here read first, and then we translate in Hmong so that everybody understands it. Otherwise, the class is conducted in Hmong."/ Thao uses a basic Hmong primer. "It's pretty well established," she said. "It gives you the vowel, the consonants, everything that you need to know. It's kind of like the Bible; it has different authors." Challenges "There is a high attendance dropout among Hmong students," Thao lamented. "So we're hoping to incorporate that in our curriculum, hoping that more students will enroll in our class. We're talking about current issues." She said there are several reasons for the high dropout rate: "1) Parents support -They don't have the tools to support their children. The children have so much homework and they need help! My suggestion is, 'Don't always rely on the parents but reach out to your teachers to help you.' Some parents also do not check the kids' homework. 2) The language barrier is also a big problem. 3) Even within the school, we don't have enough support staff. At least in the elementary and middle school levels, the kids are pretty sheltered and have a close relationship with ESL and bilingual support specialists. But once in high school, they're on their own. The Hmong don't have a liaison. While the Minority Coordinator serves all minority students, we tend to look at someone who's like us, with whom we feel more comfortable." Another big challenge is teaching and learning the "tone" of the Hmong language. "Students who were born and grew up in this country cannot hear the tone," she observed. "Hmong language is tonal. If they can't speak, it's all right, but when it comes to writing, they cannot tell the difference between words. It's all determined by the end of the letter, and if you can't hear the tone, you misspell it." The curriculum has been revised from a one-semester course to a year-long course because of the expanding coverage. "First we thought about one semester, but then it's too short, so we made it into a year-long program starting with grammar, reading and writing, and then the cultural part," Thao explained. "The first semester is focused on culture, like the Hmong New Year, the Hmong lineage, families; and in the second semester, we will talk about the war in Laos. In the fourth quarter, we'll talk about the current issues -- the struggles that Hmong Americans face in this country. I also want the students to see the good side of the Hmong people." Hopes "Choua and I hope to offer the 'second level' of this course, but it depends on enrollment," Thao said. "I hope that the students will reach that level -- a deeper understanding of the details about our culture and history." While teaching the Hmong for Hmong Speakers class is challenging, it has its rewards as well. "I really like everything that we do," Thao said. "That's because we try to attach our cultural values. Every Friday we start with a Hmong song, and I always try to get an old song that they never heard before. Then we talk about a proverb. In the future we'll have some debates about hot issues. I will keep them motivated." Thao has an important message to Hmong kids. "Education is the key to success; but there are other avenues too," she stressed. "We have some students who are not good in school but they have other talents. Just grow your talent and go where you feel like you need to go. But as we say, education is a plus." On the myth that Asian Americans are a 'model minority,' Thao said softly but forcefully, "Southeast Asians in general are not as educated as [others] like the Chinese, Filipinos, Koreans, and the Japanese. The problem is, we do not have anyone to advocate for us, and we don't' really advocate for ourselves, so that's something that we need to work on." The work is already starting, and whether or not Thao knows it, she's actively involved in it. |
 |
| May Choua Thao vaguely remembers her homeland, Laos, and the refugee camps in Thailand where she and her family stayed for almost three years. After all, she was only seven at the time. All she remembers was that her father used to be a soldier in Laos who decided to take his family away from the aftermath of a war that decimated thousands of Hmong who fought with American forces against the Viet Cong and Laotian communists. All she remembers was the endless |
 |