Group Work

Throughout my whole life, I've been able to work with many organizations. I've been able to reflect and be critical of my own group leadership style and so forth but being in Vietnam definitely challenged me a lot. For one, we are all working with so many different language barriers. I definitely realized this from the very start. When we were talking on the bus, I remember being slightly frustrated from having to move back and forth from English to Vietnamese. Although its no one's fault, I knew that generally, my personality is to make sure everyone is on the same page and that everyone is happy and pleased. Therefore, I felt some great responsibility to translate and talk to everyone. This is probably a huge problem as well because of couse, both sides are capable of talking to each other.

At the same time, I realized that I had to depend on my buddy group often because of the language barrier. For instance, the first time we did an interview, I freaked out and became as quiet as a mouse. I was so overwhelmed by how little I understood from the interview that I became freakishly quiet. From then on, I just depended on them to carry out the interview. At the same time, I felt a deep responsibility to the group for my lack of Vietnamese skills so therefore, I tried my best to translate and make the Gig English versions sound natural.

In retrospect, the language barrier caused serious problems for everyone. It made it harder to communicate and to do any type of work but it's all good. Its just the challenge we had to take from benig in a class of UC and HANU students. With all the challenges, it helps us understand one another and to learn how to "get each other's backs".

Also, I remember the first time our Project Kiem An group came together for the scavenger hunt. Immediately, I noticed the different ways we liked to approach our work. For instance, I feel like Sharon and Thai Linh are much more straightforward and direct about what they want. If they want to interview someone random, they go with less hesitation. For me and An, it's a different story. We both freak out a little about the idea of possibly intruding into someone's life. And this has definitely come out in our Project Kiem An groups. However, what I've realized from being on this program and from hanging out with my project group is that we definitely fuel each other. When I'm frightened about something, Sharon is always ready to be like "it's okay. What's the worst that can happen?" and then Thai Linh will be like "yeah! Let's do it" with a smile on her face. Then An will help remind us about the caution that we need to take. It's kind of this nice group dynamic going on. In a group, you can't always have the same type of people right? Gotta have the yummy bag of candy full of chewy sour gummy worms, chocolate raisins, and peach rings for a successful movie watching day :)

So, especially with the Project Kiem An group, I've learned the importance of depending on one another and how each person adds something different to the group. With a group that was so committed to our work and the experience of being in UCHANU, we all tried to contribute in different ways and tried to surpass inevitable challenges. What a good group :)