Cultural+Snapshots

===To help create an intercultural dialogue for this website, I interviewed five International families with children currently in the Ithaca City School District. Thanks to Liam Do for his help filming and editing these videos.===

The five families I chose are from the five countries that are currently most represented by our international student population; China, Korea, Burma/Myanmar, India and Israel. The families chosen were families that I had a relationship with and were willing to share their experiences in Ithaca and information about their own cultural background. I asked about their experience here in the Ithaca City School District and what school was like in their home country.

These interviews present a small snapshot into the cultural diversity of our students and are not intended to be representative of all students from any particular country or representative of all the countries our students are from. For each family there are links to a separate country page with information about cultural background and educational systems. These are small samples of information to help build an intercultural dialogue and not representative of a broader context. I would like to thank all the families that participated for sharing their stories and perspectives.

China: Mandy and Gu Chen
Mandy and her Mom, Gu Chen are from Guangzhou, China. Gu Chen is a visiting scholar at Cornell University. Mandy is in first grade in the Ithaca City School District. Mandy attended a private Nursery School in China but she has not yet been to elementary school in China, which she will attend when Mandy and her Mother return to Guangzhou. Mandy's family is transnational. Her father and the rest of her family are back in China while Mandy and her Mother live in Ithaca. Mandy communicates with her father everyday through Ququ, a very popular way to skype in China. Even so Mandy misses her father and her friends back in China and sometimes dreams about them at night. Mandy and Gu Chen will return to China after one year.

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Korea: Matthew, Soo Min, and Yoo Kyung
Matthew, Soo Min and Yoo Kyung are from Seoul, @Korea. Yoo Kyung is a visiting scholar at Cornell University in the nutrition department. Soo Min is in first grade and Matthew is in prek in the Ithaca City School District. They have lived in Ithaca for over a year. Soo Min briefly attended school in Korea before coming to Ithaca and this is Matthew's first experience in school. Yoo Kyung has been reading with her children in both English and Korea since they were born. Yoo Kyung brought her children to Ithaca on her own while her husband, Hyeon Cheol attended the University in Seoul. Hyeon Cheol has recently been able to join his family as a visiting scholar at Cornell University. Matthew and Soo Min enjoy making their own inventions and toys with their father.

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Burma (Myanmar): Phyo, Ar Kar, AB and Win
Phyo is a seventh grader in the Ithaca City School district. He family comes from Burma, now called @Myanmar, but Phyo and his brother, Ar Kar, were born in in Nu Po Refugee Camp in Thailand. His parents, AB and Win Soe, fled to Thailand after experiencing life-threatening persecution. Phyo and his family came to Ithaca as political refugees in 2008. Phyo has attended Ithaca City Schools for five years. He is a passionate soccer player and an honor student at Dewitt Middle School.

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India:


Syed and Mina are from Lucknow,India, a city 200 miles from New Delhi. Syed works for the College of Veterinary Medicine at Cornell University. They have two daughters, Zahra and Sarah. Zahra is in Kindergarten. Zahra's family speaks Hindi, Urdu, and English. They like to have fun together; eating good food, visiting friends, watching movies, playing games, singing, dancing, and reading stories. Zahra's family also enjoys traveling around the USA.media type="youtube" key="MEY1zfjL4JU" height="360" width="640"

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Israel: Adi, Michal, Gal and Sharaf
Gal, Adi, Michal , and Shahaf are from Havatzelet Hasharon, @Israel, a small village north of Tel Aviv. They came to Ithaca in the Fall of 2011. Michal is a post doctoral associate researcher in the Department of Horticulture at Cornell University. Gal is a lawyer in Israel and he received his LLB degree from Netanya Academic College in Israel. Gal is also an abstract expressionist painter and he has shown his work in both Tel Aviv and Ithaca, NY. Adi is a kindergartner in Ithaca City School District. Adi loves sports of all kinds, and he is a talented artist.

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