ipl-logo

Do Thais Make A Difference?

1000 Words4 Pages

Thais' morning is no different than any other responsible young adult. She gets up before sunset. She wakes the kids up and makes breakfast and then she gets them ready for school. After Thais drop them off to school they say goodbye to her. “Tchau,” the kids would say. “Tchau crianças,” says Thais. Thais are like most caretakers. She loves, nurtures, and plays with the kids. The only difference? These aren't her kids at all. Thais is a 29-year-old woman from Sao Paulo, Brazil who works as an au pair for a wealthy family in the Iowa City area. An au pair is someone, usually a young lady, who works as a domestic assistant from a foreign country while she lives alongside a host family. “In exchange for rooming and board, I am teaching the kids how to speak Portuguese. Meanwhile, I am also learning English. I am learning from them just as much as they are learning from me,” says Thais. …show more content…

An affair story that Thais shared with me was the one that involved a male au pair who was sleeping with the father of the family. “The guy was sneaking around and having sex with the father. The father had previously identified as heterosexual, but the au pair clearly was not. I don't know how he was able to convince him to sleep with him, but that was the case in this situation.” The goal of an au pair is never to disrupt the dynamic of a family. Their job, according to Thais is to be as helpful as possible around the house while caring for the kids. In this situation, she is also teaching the kids Portuguese. The au pair business has been growing and more and more families are requesting them, while more and more people sign up to join this job industry. Thais would recommend the job to just about anyone that is interested. Although she loves what she does, she does admit that the job comes with a huge amount of

Show More
Related
542 Words | 3 Pages

As women, the four girls criticized their mother’s efficiency” (41). Even though the girls don’t always appreciate their mother’s actions, Mami always wants to succeed in doing the best for her children. Laura does the best she can for her children and cares about them

Read More
885 Words | 4 Pages

Though the transitions of the Thao children appear somewhat smoother, they still challenge the nature of tradition and expectation. For example, Paja’s youngest daughter Chai speaks English fluently, wears t-shirts emblazoned with American universities, and plays basketball. By the end of the film, fourteen-year-old Chai is the only daughter still living at home because her older sisters had all been “kidnapped” and wed. In Meo culture, a groom kidnaps his prospective bride in order to marry her.

Read More
2234 Words | 9 Pages

Rocio describes her classes being very basic and taught in Spanish which made her feel very comfortable. But after realized that she wished the system would have challenged her in English so she could be prepared for further education instead of simple catering her language. She hopes they challenge other students because, in the long run, it’s worth

Read More
1543 Words | 7 Pages

Similar to Camila, Trina also has a family, and her husband also likes to make decisions for her without consulting with her. However, Trina is more independent, and she “always had the desire to progress a little”. For example, she would go out to work secretly when her husband did not allow her to work outside, and the workplace gives Trina more chances to practice oral English. Overall, communities and families have certain expectations for females, such as to stay at home and to take care of the

Read More
818 Words | 4 Pages

The two parents, Amanda and Howard, lived in Brunei when they first met, had children and got married. Howard had moved to Brunei to work as a

Read More
701 Words | 3 Pages

Rodriguez’s English was not the best, and because of that he would either be silent or quietly mumble when asked to participate by one of the nuns (73). Since his lack of participation was noticeable and showed little progress, some of his teachers visited Rodriguez’s home to ask his parents to “encourage your children to practice their English when they are home?” (73). Rodriguez one day walks in on his parents speaking Spanish, but when they see him they switch to English, which offends and over the days that follows angers him enough to decide to seriously learn English. Rodriguez even willingly decides to participate in class (74).

Read More
1122 Words | 5 Pages

Lia Lee and her husband did not have any close relatives in St. Paul during their arrival. Their sponsor found them an apartment in St. Paul. Lee and husband Xiong attended adult school to learn English and learn how to adjust to living in America. After one year of learning English, Lia Lee found a job in a company. She worked there for 5 years and quit the job to take care of her children.

Read More
731 Words | 3 Pages

Their remaining parents are inflicted with double the responsibility; they are in charge of their own survival as well as their children's survival, in addition to all the natural stress and life draining factors of war. When Sourdi's mother seems to be following her Cambodian culture's traditional roles for women, she is in fact just dealing with her consequential status as a war refugee. She has lost everything except for her family to war. Craving a sense of security for her and her children, she relocates them to America with nothing but their hope and few other salvaged possessions. However, these few possessions are not adequate enough to live a comfortable lifestyle.

Read More
1011 Words | 5 Pages

Kerri Domena Mrs. Hauser Banned/Censored Book Author Study March 24, 2023 Frankenstein: a green monster, held together by stitches with bolts in its neck, a ubiquitous symbol of Halloween. Despite what popular culture implies, Frankenstein is not the name of this monster, but rather of its creator, Doctor Victor Frankenstein; a genius whose obsession with mortality led him to create life of his own accord. A man playing God, an archetypical story as old as stories themselves; a source of inspiration for many passed-down legends, some so common that no one is quite sure exactly where they originated from. This legend, called “the first myth of modern times,” by Hitchhock, however, is unique in that it can be directly traced back to

Read More
502 Words | 3 Pages

The film “Speaking in Tongues” (2010) obtained the students, parents, and communities perspective towards bilingual education. The students interviewed were all mainly towards learning how to speak a second language. The students felt they could benefit in learning a second language or in expanding their home language. In the film, Kelly Wong stated she loved speaking Chinese to her grandmother. Kelly could practice, learn, and get corrected by her grandmother while speaking Chinese.

Read More
870 Words | 4 Pages

Amy Chua’s intense Chinese mother style is extremely hard on children. The author begins explaining how many stereotypical Chinese children become successful.

Read More
1351 Words | 6 Pages

In a family there are many different roles; there's the role of the mother, the father, the child, the grandparents, then there’s the brothers and sisters. Every single one of those roles has different responsibilities. The father, according to most of society, is supposed to be the breadwinner for the family. However, nowadays the mother is actually quite capable of being the breadwinner just as much of as the father. As they work to show their children what it is to be an adult they are teaching them as well on how to be an active member of society.

Read More
955 Words | 4 Pages

There are many ideals that can be compared between Thai and U.S. culture, and a couple of them are social systems, social relationships, and education. To begin with, Thailand and the U.S. have different thoughts and ideas on social systems. Thailand believes in the social system of collectivism. Collectivism where nothing matters in relation of race, ethnic, or religion.

Read More
1764 Words | 8 Pages

She thinks if you are in America you should be speaking English and if students are learning another language in school it takes time away from other curriculum. During the San Francisco School Board meeting, many people shared their thoughts having all San Francisco public schools students become bilingual. Dr. Ling-chi Wang, a scholar and activist, shared that knowing a second language stimulates and enhances learning in other subjects. Another man mentioned how only knowing English places limits on his job (ie. business). The business industry can be worldwide and not knowing a second language can create obstacles for people to do

Read More
751 Words | 4 Pages

1. Thai breakfast In Thai, you can eat the same foods for breakfast as you might eat for lunch or for dinner. breakfast is known as ahaan chow (อาหารเช้า), meaning morning food.

Read More

More about Do Thais Make A Difference?

Related Topics

Open Document