Open you mind, show a tiny bit of interest in another's culture and you will be rewarded a thousand times!

[Rob_Hugo@PortNW]

As an emmigrant myself [Poland 1981], I can tell you that there is a special joy that comes when someone shows the slightest interest in my culture, traditions and history. I then love to share the best of my collective memories of things from my homeland.

I found the same from my teacher's aide Melody who is from Taiwan. The moment I decided to incorporate Chinese New Year into my social studies section, she blossomed! She is so excited about this section. There isn't enough she can do to help me help the children understand what it means to celebrate Chinese New Year.

This promises to be one of my best projects ever. We will celebrate with song, art and foods.
Melody is more excited than the children at this point!

[Anonymous]

This weekend there will be a Chinese New Year celebration in downtown LA.

Check out the website for more info.

http://www.lagoldendragonparade.com/

If you want to show up around 9am, you can open the festival with me. I'll be participating in the Tai Chi demonstration at 10. I have never practiced Tai Chi, so I'm sure i'll make a fool of myself. The man in charge assured me that no experience is required. If you're still not sure, let me sweeten the deal: all participants get a free T-shirt and coupons for food. How could you pass that up?

[Anonymous]

So I went to the Chinese New Year parade and festival this Saturday. I didn't practice Tai Chi like I thought I was going to. ( There were only about 20 people, instead of 80, and I lost my nerve). I did, however, eat my weight in food. I had egg custard, shu mai, bbq pork, rice bread, a sweet bun, and others.
I was a little scared because the restaurants / bakeries aren't as pristine as I'm accustomed to, but my boyfriend grew up on this stuff, so I had to be brave. Everything was delicious.
The parade went on for hours; lots of bands, city councilmen, and of course, dragons.
It was quite an experience. After 7 hours, I was exhausted and had to call it quits. The parade was still plugging along.

[Anonymous]

March 3 was Japanese Doll Festival (hinamatsuri), called Girl's Day to most Japanese Americans. For this day, Japanese girls put up their doll displays, showing the old Japanese court -- emperor & emperess, ladies in waiting, musicians, male attendents, warriors, furniture, ox cart, etc. It's a visually pleasant holiday. As an old wives' tale, girls are not supposed to leave their dolls up to long. Otherwise, they won't get married until late in life. I personally think that was just a way of getting the girls to clean up the dolls. They're a joy to take out as you unfold each layer to see such beauty, but they're not so fun to put back, as it's quite tedious.

Anyway, I also have a new aide this year. She is Japanese American. She asked me how my Girl's Day was, and we shared stories. She also told me that she and her family eat a special food, a special pink-dyed mochi with anko (sweet bean) in the middle and wrapped in a Cherry Blossom Tree leaf. She is always so excited to share her ideas and culture that I wouldnt' be suprised if I recieved one of these delicacies. As you said, it's so great to learn from others as they share more and more of their culture once you show an interest.

[Anonymous]

I totally agree with egant. I'm come from Taiwan. I'm also interested in different cultures. I was fall in love with American TV show when I was little. And also very interested in Japanese culture. I have learned to appreciate each culture's differences more via gaining more knowledge of them.

[Anonymous]

After visiting China, I want to discover more and more about everything about China. There are so many places, histories, cultures for us to discover.

[Author]

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