Words From an Ethiopian Father

Here is a long interview of an Ethiopian father that has immigrated to the United States. More specifically the father is Oromo and was interviewed by Bridging Refugee Youth and Childrens Services. At the end of the article there are links to information for raising immigrant children. I was surprised to find that many of the resources also come in Amharic.

Here is little from the interview. Read the complete article.

We try to teach our language to our children by speaking Oromo at home. Before we came to the U.S., the children spoke Oromo perfectly. Now, I speak to them in Oromo, and they respond to me in English. Some of the Oromo values that I want to pass on to my children are respecting family, elders, and each other. When you respect elders, you maintain the connection between the generations; if you lose that, the generations are disconnected. If you are in a meeting and an elder enters the room, everyone will stand up out of respect for that elder. We will also kneel down when greeting an elder, or kiss the shoes of an elder – some people think this is backwards, but it is showing respect. I also want my children to love their country of origin – the language, food, dress, and ways of greeting. In Oromo culture, we give big hugs when greeting each other. How we dress is also important. For ladies, their skirts should come down to the ankle. We have to respect how we look and how we dress.

One of the resources was an article on Raising bilingual children.