Service Learning: Self and Identity

Ever since coming from the Nghe An trip, I've been thinking lately about the bluntness that Vietnamese people have for identifying others. For instance, when I walk into Dragonfly and greet the now familiar staff, they automatically nickname me "Beo" without hesitation. When we were in Nghe An, the teachers took us to the poorest houses in Vietnam. When we went inside, they would bluntly say "this is the poorest family in Vietnam" right in front of the faces of these Vietnamese people. They would throw out "ngheo qua!" this "ngheo qua" that back and forth like a frisbee. And then it made me think about the bluntness of the physical therapists that we worked with. They would bluntly say "these kids are not 'binh thuong'. They have something wrong in their head". And they will say it to me right in front of their faces.

It's in total contrast with America where we have to learn to be politically correct. We have to be careful with saying the word "disabled" or "mentally ill" or even "poor" and "rich". We're often very afraid to hurt people's feelings and to put people down, even though America's institutions do it anyway. People are often put in place by unjust policies and attitudes but Americans pretend like they don't. In Vietnam, though, I wonder how they feel about being labelled "mentally ill" so quickly and with so much bluntness. Does it become a part of their identity? Is that their only identity? Because I can honestly say that our kids have something special about them, from their personality to their mannerisms. But how do people see them and how do they see themselves? Do they try their best to be "regular" kids? And do some of them even have the capability to understand that they are somehow "different" from others? By constantly being labelled as "mentally disabled", does it disempower them as in the self-fulfilling prophecy? I'm not too sure.

It would be really interesting to look further into this so that we can better understand how to approach disabled children. What is the best technique for talking about them? What is the best way to give them confidence? And how can we be culturally sensitive about the ways that different cultures identify people?