This essay will be evaluating the question: how did language and communication play a role in shaping what happened to Lia? Also, it will look at if Fadiman points out ways in which communication practices between doctors and patients could be improved. These were important in the book, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, because they shaped what would happen to Lia in the end. The evidence we will look at will include the facts that the doctors and the Lees couldn’t understand each other, the hospitals didn’t have enough interpreters for everyone, and that the Lees did not trust hospitals or doctors in the first place because of their culture.
Anthropological studies on language and communication would be directly related to Lia’s case for a few reasons: Lia and her family were Hmong, her parents could not read or write, they didn’t give her enough medication. Also, Lia was taken away from her parents because of language and communication barriers that led to her parents not administering her medication at all, as well as interpreters not being clear about what to give her.
Language and communication played huge roles in the outcome of Lia. If her family had been able to read, write and speak English, she may have been able to get the help she needed. Instead, the doctors did their best to make sure that Lia’s parents knew how much medication to give her since Fadiman stated in the book, “Foua and Nao Kao, of course, had no idea what the labels read”(1997; 46). Therefore they had no idea how much she needed each day, and they didn’t trust doctors on top of that most of the time, so Lia didn’t even take the medication. This really affected Lia’s body and she started having more and more seizures because of it.
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...ation could have been improved between doctors and patients in simple ways. Interpreters were used and children went to school and helped translate for family members. These helped communication somewhat, but it wasn’t enough. There may not have been any other way to help, but some people tried to and doctors tried to be patient with the Hmong to understand what they wanted and to make them understand what was going on.
To conclude, with the Lees being Hmong and not wanting to conform to society and abide by the way things works, I feel Lia’s fate was inevitable. The doctors did as much as they could, but in the end, it still wasn’t enough to prevent Lia from going brain dead. Language and communication may have been the one thing that caused Lia to suffer because the doctors couldn’t understand the Hmong and the Hmong couldn’t or refused to understand the doctors.
I learned about the diverse cultures present in today’s society. It is very easy to ignore the beliefs that do not perfectly align with our own. This book addresses that issue very well. I would not blame anyone for Lia’s tragedy. I believe that she was just a victim of her circumstances. Although it could have been handled in a better fashion, it is not anyone’s fault that there were language and cultural barriers. Anne Fadiman seemed unbiased and probably feels the same way about this
Chang Rae-Lee, author of "Mute in an English-Only World," moved to America from Korea when he was only six or seven years old. He adopted the English language quickly, as most children do, but his mother continued to struggle. "For her, the English language…usually meant trouble and a good dose of shame and sometimes real hurt" (Lee 586). It is obvious, though, that his mother was persistent in her attempt to learn English and deal with her limited culture experience, as Lee accounts of her using English flash cards, phrase books and a pocket workbook illustrated with stick-people figures. Lee sympathetically connects with the audience through his mother, and forces them to make a personal conclusion when he ends the article with a lingering question in the reader’s mind; what if they had seen her struggling? Would they have sat back and watched or stepped up to help?
Dr. Hutchinson replied that medicines might make Lia more susceptible to the bacterial infection and caused Lia’s tragedy.
Share the story of The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures.
Union between two quarrelsome objects can be the most amazing creation in certain situations, take for instance, water. Originally, water was just hydroxide and hydrogen ions, but together these two molecules formed a crucial source of survival for most walks of life. That is how marriage can feel, it is the start of a union that without this union the world would not be the same. A Hmong mother, Foua took it upon herself to perform a marriage ceremony for the author of “The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down”, Anne Fadiman. In this miniscule event, two cultures with completely conflicting ideas came together to form a union. In this union, an American was celebrating an event in a Hmong way, truly a collision of two cultures.
In caring for patients in the hospital setting today one must look at variety of patients from various background. Healthcare providers should be aware of patients’ culture, beliefs and attitude to provide quality care. The Office of Minority Health of the Federal Government has developed a set of 14 principles called the CLAS Standards (Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services), which are mainly directed at healthcare organization, and are mandated for all organizations receiving Federal funds. The focus is on the terms of linguistic services and efforts to provide information to patients in their own language through availability of brochures, interpreters, and other means. In this essay I would like to exam cultural considerations with emphasis on impaired verbal communication related to language barrier, because I feel that communication barrier can cause a reduction in healthcare quality and low patient satisfaction.
They play a big role in communities since they help community members become culturally aware and develop cultural tolerance. They help patients communicate their health problems with doctors and help the patients and the doctors understand each other’s cultures. There are a lot of factors that go into being a medical interpreter, other than being able to speak two languages fluently. In order to be an insider in this subculture, a person needs to be culturally aware, be trustworthy, and patient, as they need to make the staffs in the hospitals and patients understand each other's culture. Through first-hand experience, one can come to appreciate medical interpreters and understand how difficult the job of medical interpreter is; while observing and interviewing few medical interpreters, one can learn the obstacles a medical interpreter faces, the importance of this profession, and the rules and code of medical interpreter a medical interpreter must follow, as well as an inside look into this
All informants and sources are listed according to the chapters in which they contributed. Her major helpers, such as her interpreter, the Lees, the doctors who treated Lia, and a few others, have a special thanks from the author at the beginning of this section. Fadiman consulted a vast array of sources from both perspectives of Lia’s story. She also read nearly all of the available literature about the Hmong at that time, which admittedly was not abundant compared to now. Overall, those she spoke to seemed to be open and willing to talk about what had happened. The doctors freely admitted mistakes they made or may have made, and showed an interest in learning where they went wrong so that they could avoid any future
In the book The Spirit Catches you and you Fall Down, ethnocentrism can also be seen. Throughout the book the family and the doctors have different ideas of medicine/healing techniques are often disagreed on. It’s important for the doctor to see that biomedicine has its own intentions of saving patient through standard procedures and beliefs. Understanding those terms will shed some light on the culture of the patient, which has their own intentions, beliefs, and rules as well. Breaking down ethnocentrism to find an agreement is a good goal to accomplish in order have successful prognosis and healing. In addition, shedding the ethnocentrism will allow the doctors to see the different cultural beliefs and not judge right away. Although, some cultural remedies may not always work, it’s wrong for people to have the mindset of ethnocentrism without even considering their beliefs first.
My research is in response to the essay “Culture Baggage” by Barbara Ehrenreich on page 298. In her writing, Ehrenreich discuses on language, race, and ethnicity and how it applies to cultural baggage. Ehrenreich points out that there were many of other people who already knew of their beliefs and culture and they stood proud for their roots and in heritage, as she slouched back into her seat as if she knew nothing about her culture or where she really were from. Culture refers to the learned and shared behaviors, beliefs, attitudes, values and material objects that characterize a particular group or society. Which is a group of people who share a culture and a defined territory, however society and culture go hand in hand neither
(Chand, 2012). Limited access to interpreters can be challenging because interpreters may not be on site in most health care canters (Australian Human Rights Commission [AHRC], 2010). Most new refugees in Australia come from non-English speaking countries which impacts on their health when they come to Australia (Sheikh-Mohammed, Raina MacIntyre, J Wood, Leask, & Isaacs, 2006). On the other hand, these refugees may also feel frustrated when explaining their health issues to the interpreter at the clinic because the interpreter may not explain to the doctor the way they want (Sheikh-Mohammed et al. 2006). However, some health care services lack this which results in refugee patients trying to explain their issues to the doctor (AHRC, 2010). The use of Jargon in health care services has proven to be very difficult to understand (Australian Human Rights Commission, 2010). According to (AHRC, 2010), when refugees visit the doctors they are spoken to using jargon words can come across as threatening, which makes them feel discouraged from asking questions or requesting clarity. This leads to miss understanding and communication difficulties between the patient and doctor (AHRC, 2010). Due to this language barrier health professionals are not able to understand the needs of refugees (AHRC, 2010). Which can lead to “misdiagnosis” and challenging for the doctor to monitor through the patients’ health (The department of human
Our spirits Don’t Speak English: Indian Boarding school is an 80 minute documentary that details the mental and physical abuse that the Native Americans endured during the Indian Boarding school experience from the mid 19th to the mid 20th century. In the beginning going to school for Indian children meant listening to stories told by tribal elders, parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles and storytellers. These tales past down from generation to generation were metaphors for the life experience and their relationships to plants and animals. Native children from birth were also taught that their appearance is a representation of pure thoughts and spiritual status of an individual.
Amy Tan was born in 1952 in Oakland California. She was born of two chinese parents. Tan was ridiculed during school because of her english skills. They always told her science and math was the right route for her, but Tan disagreed. Tan had gone to school pre-med, and within the first year she changed her major to english. Tan, when she has grown and was married realized that there was something particular with her family's “language”. Tan’s mother speaks in a “broken” language, as some would say. Tan grew up speaking this language thinking nothing of it, but now as a english major, she realizes that it’s different from most. She also realized her and her husband have same,
During his employment as a medical official the reality of reservation life could not be ignored. Although he must have wanted to help his people there were many difficulties of the time. They were far away from Western civilization and supply to medical equipment. The epidemics of small pox, measles, and influenza were attacking the people. He could not al...
Many people who go to visit or work in another country suffer some misunderstanding from the local people, because they have a different culture. Different culture will cause disparity points of view about almost everything. In the article, Intercultural Communication Stumbling Blocks by Laray M. Barna, there are five stumbling blocks mentioned that are seen in a cross-culture communication. These blocks are: language, nonverbal signs and symbols, preconceptions and stereotypes, the tendency to evaluate and high anxiety. Barna wants to use these stumbling blocks to show the common blockades between different cultures. I agree with what she thinks about the language, nonverbal signs and symbols, preconceptions and stereotypes, and the tendency