Lost in Translation?

Last night I had one Hmong student for ELL. It was one of my beginner students who barely understands English. I wanted to tell my students where Christmas came from and was discouraged at first when I saw it was only this student and there wasn't a more advanced student there to translate for me. I prayed that God would help her to understand and started explaining about Mary & Joseph.

I had printed out pictures of Mary & Joseph with the donkey, a city like Bethlehem, Wise Men with camels, a big star, Shepherds, an Angel, a stable, and Jesus in the manger. I had to tell the story very slowly and moved the papers to show Mary & Joseph travelling to Bethlehem, then when Jesus was around 2 the Wise Men travelling to see them. With these and many extra hand motions, I told the story of Christ's birth. It had to be funny to watch, but I wanted to get my point across to this student.

I did have to stop several times to explain things more in depth. I was afraid she wasn't getting anything I was saying. Finally, towards the end, a light came on and I could see in her face that she understood what I was saying! She said, "Teacher, Mayaia understand" and she repeated parts of the story back to me. God opened up her mind and somehow used my baffled words and motions, to get through to her!

I wanted to show you the way the Hmong's write words. Here are a few examples of English words and how the Hmong spell it in order to know how to sound the word out:

Cross - khoj-s

Die - dais

Sin - sees

Angel - ev nTsuy

Bethlehem - nPev las ham

It is a very hard language!