"What is a shortest Mohawk?"
One interesting feeling that I have experienced occasionally in the summer camp that I've worked in for the past two summers is that old forgotten feeling of an outsider, of someone who has no idea what is going on around him whereas everyone else does. Almost the same feeling I had when I was an immigrant. And it's been a while since I felt like an immigrant. Next summer I'll celebrate 30 years in USA!
When I first came to America in 1992 I spoke very little English and knew even less about American culture. Since I came as a teenager I went to school, I was taking ESL classes and was also learning the language actively on my own. I would say after 5-6 years of living in America I learned enough English so it didn't feel like a foreign language to me any more. As the years went by and I lived in different parts of America and learned to understand different dialects and accents in English, I felt more and more confident about the culture and the language.
Last summer I started a brand new job at this traditional American summer camp. I am pretty sure I'm the only adult there who has never had any experience with this type of camp. Many of our counselors attended this camp as children, they practically lived in the camp for many summers. Including our director and his brother who is the maintenance person. Our head director worked and attended camps for as many years as I've been in America. And here I am, a grown-up woman learning about a new camp experience along with some 3- and 4-year olds who are also brand new at camp.
Last summer was not the best time to start at camp, the year was 2020. Like everywhere else this was not a traditional summer at our camp. It was the very beginning of Covid, all the schedules were modified to fit the regulations for social distancing. All adults were wearing masks, as well as many kids. My understanding of English goes steeply downhill when I'm trying to understand what is being said through masks. So, I didn't put a lot of effort to mingle as much back then, didn't try to socialize with counselors and other adults. What is the point if I cannot understand a lot of what is being said! So, I mostly kept to myself.
This summer was somewhat back to normal. No more distancing regulations or masks. However, there are still situations when I feel like I am immigrant and don't know much about American culture. Working in camp, surrounded mostly by children and teenagers I'm starting to feel my age and my non-Americanness. There is a certain part of me which embraces American culture and knows about it; those are the aspects that I'm familiar with. And then there are things that I don't have a clue because I didn't grow up in America.
The irony of the situation is that I haven't been to camps anywhere, neither in USA, nor in Soviet Union where I grew up. Neither as a camper, nor as a counselor. So, I don't even have any foreign experience of a camp to compare with. And my own kids had limited experience as campers as well. We never considered a traditional kind of camp like the one I work at now. These types of camp were too expensive for us.
The Award ceremony
The worst part of this feeling like a non-American happened on the last day of camp this summer. It was during the Award ceremony. I was looking forward to this ceremony, curious to hear what the counselors are giving their kids awards for. However, most of the ceremony I felt like I did 30 years ago when I was just learning English as a new language. My knowledge of English was very poor back then. I would hear a person say a sentence, catch only a word or two and then try to make sense of the whole sentense based on those few words I understood. Pretty tiring job! It's been years since I felt like that.
I've worked in schools now for 13 years, I've gotten so used to hearing the same vocabulary. Most teachers are pretty good at speaking clearly, so I have no problem understanding them. Many teacher's aides are are also immigrants from various countries, so it's more challenging to understand their English with all the different foreign accents. However, knowing what we are talking about in general makes it easier. Also, all the staff working at schools are adults and they are understanding if you don't undertand something and ask to repeat.
Here, during the ceremony, on the other hand, the stage was full of teenagers. Many teens don't try to speak clearly, I know it from the way my own daughter speaks. She is 15, but her unclear speaking has been on for a few years now. She rarely speaks Russian at home (even though both me and my husband speak Russian to her). And when she talks in English way too often I don't understand what she is saying. She doesn't pronounce the words clearly and talks way too fast. When I ask her to repeat, she repeats in exactly the same way, too fast and unclear. It's probably considered a cool way to speak among teens.
So, here I was sitting in front of the stage straining to understand what was being said. I came late, during the time that our head counselor was talking. Him I understand very well. Then the counselors were going to the stage one by one, reading outloud their awards for the kids in their bunks. The only other counselor that I understood well was the one who works in school for many years. His speech is very clear and I understood almost all the awards that he read outloud. The rest of the counselors who went to the stage were teens. It's listening to them that I experienced the feeling that I'm new to America and just starting to learn to understand English. Lucky me if I understood a word or two from the whole sentence!
After the kids' awards, at the end was a Mock ceremony of counselors awards done by the girls in the older bunk. So, here are the girls standing on the stage, reading out their funny awards. The girls are age 12 and up. Let's see if I understand anything here. Although funny awards must be even harder to understand. I find jokes are much more challenging to figure out in a different language. The girls read their awards, and I hardly catch what they are saying.
When it's Ed's turn, one of our counselors, the girls read "An award goes to Ed for having the shortest Mo...k." Yea, finally I catch almost the whole sentense, except for the last word! The last word sounded a little like the bunk's name of Ed, Mohawk but I wasn't sure. A few younger boys, age 9, are sitting next to me. I decide to try my luck and ask one of them, "What is a 'shortest Mohawk' "? The boy looks at me incredulously and shakes his head: "You don't know what Mohawk is??? If you don't know it, I'm NOT telling you .."
I am intrigued by his reaction. What is that word that everyone is supposed to know?! I go up to an older guy, our sports director, to inquire about the shortest Mohawk. He tells me without any surprised looks that the girls referred to a haircut. Mohawk haircut, of course I know this word! If I only SAW the word written down!! I'm such a visual person. It's so much harder for me to understand words orally without seeing them. Especially when I'm tired or stressed. And for the past month I've been in those states almost every day at camp
August 22, 2021
An interesting award I understood is for the girl in the middle for swimming with broken foot
When I first came to America in 1992 I spoke very little English and knew even less about American culture. Since I came as a teenager I went to school, I was taking ESL classes and was also learning the language actively on my own. I would say after 5-6 years of living in America I learned enough English so it didn't feel like a foreign language to me any more. As the years went by and I lived in different parts of America and learned to understand different dialects and accents in English, I felt more and more confident about the culture and the language.
Last summer I started a brand new job at this traditional American summer camp. I am pretty sure I'm the only adult there who has never had any experience with this type of camp. Many of our counselors attended this camp as children, they practically lived in the camp for many summers. Including our director and his brother who is the maintenance person. Our head director worked and attended camps for as many years as I've been in America. And here I am, a grown-up woman learning about a new camp experience along with some 3- and 4-year olds who are also brand new at camp.
Last summer was not the best time to start at camp, the year was 2020. Like everywhere else this was not a traditional summer at our camp. It was the very beginning of Covid, all the schedules were modified to fit the regulations for social distancing. All adults were wearing masks, as well as many kids. My understanding of English goes steeply downhill when I'm trying to understand what is being said through masks. So, I didn't put a lot of effort to mingle as much back then, didn't try to socialize with counselors and other adults. What is the point if I cannot understand a lot of what is being said! So, I mostly kept to myself.
This summer was somewhat back to normal. No more distancing regulations or masks. However, there are still situations when I feel like I am immigrant and don't know much about American culture. Working in camp, surrounded mostly by children and teenagers I'm starting to feel my age and my non-Americanness. There is a certain part of me which embraces American culture and knows about it; those are the aspects that I'm familiar with. And then there are things that I don't have a clue because I didn't grow up in America.
The irony of the situation is that I haven't been to camps anywhere, neither in USA, nor in Soviet Union where I grew up. Neither as a camper, nor as a counselor. So, I don't even have any foreign experience of a camp to compare with. And my own kids had limited experience as campers as well. We never considered a traditional kind of camp like the one I work at now. These types of camp were too expensive for us.
The Award ceremony
The worst part of this feeling like a non-American happened on the last day of camp this summer. It was during the Award ceremony. I was looking forward to this ceremony, curious to hear what the counselors are giving their kids awards for. However, most of the ceremony I felt like I did 30 years ago when I was just learning English as a new language. My knowledge of English was very poor back then. I would hear a person say a sentence, catch only a word or two and then try to make sense of the whole sentense based on those few words I understood. Pretty tiring job! It's been years since I felt like that.
I've worked in schools now for 13 years, I've gotten so used to hearing the same vocabulary. Most teachers are pretty good at speaking clearly, so I have no problem understanding them. Many teacher's aides are are also immigrants from various countries, so it's more challenging to understand their English with all the different foreign accents. However, knowing what we are talking about in general makes it easier. Also, all the staff working at schools are adults and they are understanding if you don't undertand something and ask to repeat.
Here, during the ceremony, on the other hand, the stage was full of teenagers. Many teens don't try to speak clearly, I know it from the way my own daughter speaks. She is 15, but her unclear speaking has been on for a few years now. She rarely speaks Russian at home (even though both me and my husband speak Russian to her). And when she talks in English way too often I don't understand what she is saying. She doesn't pronounce the words clearly and talks way too fast. When I ask her to repeat, she repeats in exactly the same way, too fast and unclear. It's probably considered a cool way to speak among teens.
So, here I was sitting in front of the stage straining to understand what was being said. I came late, during the time that our head counselor was talking. Him I understand very well. Then the counselors were going to the stage one by one, reading outloud their awards for the kids in their bunks. The only other counselor that I understood well was the one who works in school for many years. His speech is very clear and I understood almost all the awards that he read outloud. The rest of the counselors who went to the stage were teens. It's listening to them that I experienced the feeling that I'm new to America and just starting to learn to understand English. Lucky me if I understood a word or two from the whole sentence!
After the kids' awards, at the end was a Mock ceremony of counselors awards done by the girls in the older bunk. So, here are the girls standing on the stage, reading out their funny awards. The girls are age 12 and up. Let's see if I understand anything here. Although funny awards must be even harder to understand. I find jokes are much more challenging to figure out in a different language. The girls read their awards, and I hardly catch what they are saying.
When it's Ed's turn, one of our counselors, the girls read "An award goes to Ed for having the shortest Mo...k." Yea, finally I catch almost the whole sentense, except for the last word! The last word sounded a little like the bunk's name of Ed, Mohawk but I wasn't sure. A few younger boys, age 9, are sitting next to me. I decide to try my luck and ask one of them, "What is a 'shortest Mohawk' "? The boy looks at me incredulously and shakes his head: "You don't know what Mohawk is??? If you don't know it, I'm NOT telling you .."
I am intrigued by his reaction. What is that word that everyone is supposed to know?! I go up to an older guy, our sports director, to inquire about the shortest Mohawk. He tells me without any surprised looks that the girls referred to a haircut. Mohawk haircut, of course I know this word! If I only SAW the word written down!! I'm such a visual person. It's so much harder for me to understand words orally without seeing them. Especially when I'm tired or stressed. And for the past month I've been in those states almost every day at camp
August 22, 2021
An interesting award I understood is for the girl in the middle for swimming with broken foot