Lia was taken away from her family and put into foster care. As part of the Hmong culture, they are naturally very violent and are not deterred by being outnumbered. She was deeply connected to this family and to this child so she harassed the government and the hospital until the Lees got what they deserved. Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman is a groundbreaking book about cross-cultural communication in health care. Even, Lees developed a notion against the medical approach and felt that the doctors are responsible for the deteriorated condition of their child, the spirit catches you and you fall down essay.
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down
December 11, Section 1: Who is the one to delineate fault for a miscommunication and misunderstanding between two cultures? As the novel progress, Fadiman realizes that neither culture is truly at fault. Throughout the narrative, there were characters that were able to be culturally empathetic while some were unable to appreciate the cultural differences between the two entities and realize the necessity for cooperation and understanding. These words depict the belief in the Hmong culture that the world is full of things that might not appear related but actually are. Their development as a culture is tainted with inconsiderate counter cultures that restricted their freedom to practice their cultural rituals. This greatly influenced their ability to trust cultures that are not their own.
Their general distrust in any culture different from their own can be mainly traced back to the Chinese and Indochinese portion of their saga. Basically, the Hmong have been chased out of any home they have ever had due to their unwillingness to take orders, their affliction to losing and the imperative detail that they would rather flee, fight, or die than surrender. Jeanine made it her mission to fight the medical industry tyranny on behalf of the Hmong culture and became the only person to ask the Lees their opinion. Jeanine was the only one who thought to ask how the Lees felt about how the doctors were treating Lia and their culture.
In the Hmong culture, people born with epilepsy are believed to be the anointed ones and are destined to a life as a shaman, the spirit catches you and you fall down essay. Jeanine was the only white person who adamantly fought for the rights of the Hmong. She was able to do this by the ability to effectively and cross culturally communicate. A similar problem occurred when the Lees refused to give their daughter her daily medicine regimen. Lia was taken away from her family and put into foster care. Jeanine fought to get Lia back to her family as her epileptic episodes became more frequent and dangerous.
Hilt was the only person that took the time to listen to Foua the spirit catches you and you fall down essay her concerns regarding the unnatural substances. She did this because having another unfamiliar person in the room, the spirit catches you and you fall down essay, especially a translater, would make the Lees uncomfortable and less open to effective communication. Hilt also took the time to get to know the Lees. As part of the Hmong culture, they are naturally very violent and are not deterred by being outnumbered.
Nao Kao threatened a translator that came and told the Child Protective Services were taking Lia away. She understood the burden of a chronic illness because she had asthma. She also admired the connection and closeness of the Hmong families. She was deeply connected to this family and to this child so she harassed the government and the hospital until the Lees got what they deserved. This led the Lees to hold Jeanine in high esteem and allowed for a trust that was incredibly hard to earn from the Hmong culture. He greatly appreciated her attempt at being understanding, however he never believed it was his responsibility to do the same.
Historically Hmongs have become the pariahs of society. With this in mind, Nao Kao never really made the effort to be part of a society that he knew went against his beliefs and therefore was rejecting him. It is also prominent in Hmong culture, that the man is the strongest part of the family and the most emotionally disconnected. Nao Kao hyper masculine attitude led him and his wife to be passively obedient. This is no way to effectively communicate between two cultures. While the Hmongs believed being epileptic was a sort of blessing, they also understood the repercussions and knew the disease was at least semi-dangerous. That is the reason the Lees continued to take Lia to MCMC over and over again, despite their hatred for the medical culture and the inability to effectively communicate.
However Nao Kao Lee was most definitely stuck in his ways. Fadiman explains a observation by Francois Marie Savina as to his first impressions to the Hmong in The Lee family did little the acculturate themselves into the United States culture and came here to merely escape prosecution. When the Lees came to America, their relatives had to show them how the country worked. They relied greatly on their children. After Seventeen years of living here they still speak only Hmong and practice only Hmong traditions. The Hmong culture is famously stuck in its ways and it was no different for Nao Kao.
The mixture between his role in his culture as well as the culture itself lends itself to the inability to communicate between the Lee family and the MCMC medical staff. The first thing that would allow two cultures, such as the Hmong and the United States medical culture, to effectively communicate is knowing what their core values, core distinction, and some key elements to their culture in regards to value dimensions. However, the United States population is based on individualist side of the identity spectrum. The virtue value dimension also has a strong effect on the differences between these cultures. The Hmong are considered extreme long-term orientation, which values the long-term benefits.
This shows why the Hmong are so superstitious because they are worried about the futures of their children and even their grandchildren. The medical industry the spirit catches you and you fall down essay not superstitious and therefore believes in saving the life that needs saving now and not later. They do not discriminate on between now and later. A lot of lessons can be learned from how Jeanine was able to effectively communicate between the Hmong and US medical cultures. First of all, it is important to be open to new ways of communication between cultures and to not only find similarities, but also understand the differences between cultures.
The Hmong culture and the Medical culture in the United States seem on opposite ends of the cultural spectrum. This is called being culturally empathetic. It was a situation that forced a broken system to recognize its faults and demonstrate how it needs to be fixed. The key to communicating effectively is to realize that a culture is different from yours and value their judgments just as much as you value your own. Jeanine was able to do it, hopefully Nao Kao will one day do it as well as every doctor in the medical profession, and especially the doctors that are in heavily populated minority areas.
Bibliography 1. Fadiman, Anne. The spirit catches you and you fall down: a Hmong child, her American doctors, and the collision of two cultures. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, Hofstede, Gert Jan, Paul Pedersen, and Geert H. Exploring culture. Yarmouth, Me. I will always love traveling and someday, I hope to have a job where traveling is a requirement. I believe interacting with other cultures can seriously give you a whole new outlook on life and learning perspectives of different cultures and humans always fascinates me which is why, next year, I am planning to take a year off to work at a bed and breakfast in France. People from all over the globe come to bed and breakfasts, which will give e a lot of face time with a lot of different cultures and learn a little bit about everything.
My housing and dining will be paid for while I meet people, make lifelong connections and put all the things I learned about in cross cultural communication to work. Cross Cultural Communication opened up my eyes to some pretty basic things that you just the spirit catches you and you fall down essay really put names to. The best lesson I learned was on cultural empathy. A lot of my best friends are actually international and live in other countries. One of my best friends ever lives in Greece and looking back on our friendship, I realize how I subconsciously underwent the process of cultural empathy by asking her about the different practices she went through and the different ways she understood American culture and society.
Unfortunately, I did not do the same with my German ex-boyfriend the spirit catches you and you fall down essay lived in Germany which probably could have saved a lot of grief on my end. Another lesson I found interesting in cross-cultural communication was reflexivity. Reflexivity is the ability and willingness of a researcher to acknowledge their bias. When I went to H Street, I realized my the spirit catches you and you fall down essay growing up in small town liberal suburbia, the spirit catches you and you fall down essay. I realize my bias everyday when I meet people who grow up in different countries, parts of the country or even socio economic class, the spirit catches you and you fall down essay.
While interviewing Josh Parrish for my interview project, I saw how different our lives were and yet how similar we were. Reflexivity is not only important to acknowledge for reliable research, but for dependable relationships as well. Talking about white privilege really interested me throughout the course. Growing up as white, I kind of always resented the doors that automatically opened for me in some sense of the word. Acknowledging the different presets in society is important to society and to be able to communicate with each other, the spirit catches you and you fall down essay. If I could change one thing about this class, it would definitely be about the reading. The lessons I learned in cross cultural communication feel less immense than other classes, but I already notice how I look around and see how these lessons are applicable in real life.
I constantly look back at my history and realize how helpful these skills would have been months and even years ago. Being culturally empathetic is the most important lesson I could have learned and I feel was the overarching theme to the whole course. I found it helpful to learn how to properly acculturate into a foreign culture and while I may not become a foreign diplomat because of this class, the spirit catches you and you fall down essay, I definitely learned some important imformation. Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down. com, Nov 30, Accessed January 7, comNov Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down Topics: Culture Human Nature. Essay, Pages 13 words. Get quality help now.
Proficient in: Culture. Cite this page Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down. Recent essay samples. The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: Cultural Clash Pages: 20 words Early Bird Catches The Worm Essay Pages: 3 words When America Sneezes The World Catches A Cold Pages: 4 words We All Fall Down Robert Cormier Pages: 4 words Rexona It Won't Let You The spirit catches you and you fall down essay Pages: 7 words The Calm of the CrucibleImagine this you’re walking down the street Pages: 4 words Protestant Work Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism Pages: 4 words Where The Spirit Lives Summary Pages: 2 words Touching Spirit Bear Essay Pages: 3 words Smells Like Teen Spirit Meaning Pages: 5 words. Avoid submitting plagiarized assignments.
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There are about five main important events in the story of Lia Lee. The first Chapter goes through the traditional birthing methods and traditions of the Hmong people. One of the most noteworthy traditions is the burying the placenta. In the first chapter Nao gives birth to Lia Lee in an American hospital, their first child to be born in a hospital. Lia was born July 19, The baby appeared to be healthy and was released from the hospital 3 days later. The main focus of this chapter is comparing the birth of the children in Laos where Nao and Foua were from to the American birthing traditions. This would be the beginning of many more seizures to come.
In Hmong culture seizures are not recognized much as a physical illness as it is spiritual in nature and quab dab peg which translates to, the spirit catches you and you fall down, describes the group of symptoms experienced by Lia in the Hmong culture. To make matters worse, the doctors start to believe that the seizures are causing retardation and that if Nao and Foua would give the child the medicine as directed she would be getting better. Finally a decision is made among medical staff that placing Lia under Foster care may be in her best interest in order to assure a proper dosing regimen.
They took Lia to Minnesota to visit a twix neeb, they also were giving her proper dosages of her medication. She fell off of a swing one day and started to seize, it was a very serious seizure and three weeks after she was discharged she was admitted again. Once she arrived at MCMC, Doctor Neil was unable to stop her seizures. She went into status epilepticus which means that, no matter how many drugs they gave her, she kept on seizing. She was then transferred to the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit in Fresno after she finally stopped seizing.
Everyone thought that Lia was going to die and they were just waiting for it to happen. In Chapter 13 — Code X — In this chapter Lia is left with severe brain damage. There is a misunderstanding in the hospital between the parents and doctors and she is ripped from her tubes by her father in an attempt to take her home, at which time the hospital calls a Code X, and she is recovered and re-intubated, only to go home four hours later. If her parents would have known how to speak English, maybe there would have been more understanding and communication between them and the medical community.
This may not have solved all of the cultural differences but at least there may have been an even flow and exchange of information and feedback between both parties involved. When asking what could Drs. Fadiman explains a observation by Francois Marie Savina as to his first impressions to the Hmong in The Lee family did little the acculturate themselves into the United States culture and came here to merely escape prosecution. When the Lees came to America, their relatives had to show them how the country worked. They relied greatly on their children. After Seventeen years of living here they still speak only Hmong and practice only Hmong traditions.
The Hmong culture is famously stuck in its ways and it was no different for Nao Kao. The mixture between his role in his culture as well as the culture itself lends itself to the inability to communicate between the Lee family and the MCMC medical staff. The first thing that would allow two cultures, such as the Hmong and the United States medical culture, to effectively communicate is knowing what their core values, core distinction, and some key elements to their culture in regards to value dimensions. However, the United States population is based on individualist side of the identity spectrum. The virtue value dimension also has a strong effect on the differences between these cultures. The Hmong are considered extreme long-term orientation, which values the long-term benefits.
This shows why the Hmong are so superstitious because they are worried about the futures of their children and even their grandchildren. The medical industry is not superstitious and therefore believes in saving the life that needs saving now and not later. They do not discriminate on between now and later. A lot of lessons can be learned from how Jeanine was able to effectively communicate between the Hmong and US medical cultures. First of all, it is important to be open to new ways of communication between cultures and to not only find similarities, but also understand the differences between cultures.
The Hmong culture and the Medical culture in the United States seem on opposite ends of the cultural spectrum. This is called being culturally empathetic. It was a situation that forced a broken system to recognize its faults and demonstrate how it needs to be fixed. The key to communicating effectively is to realize that a culture is different from yours and value their judgments just as much as you value your own. Jeanine was able to do it, hopefully Nao Kao will one day do it as well as every doctor in the medical profession, and especially the doctors that are in heavily populated minority areas. Bibliography 1. Fadiman, Anne. The spirit catches you and you fall down: a Hmong child, her American doctors, and the collision of two cultures.
New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, Hofstede, Gert Jan, Paul Pedersen, and Geert H. Exploring culture. Yarmouth, Me. I will always love traveling and someday, I hope to have a job where traveling is a requirement. I believe interacting with other cultures can seriously give you a whole new outlook on life and learning perspectives of different cultures and humans always fascinates me which is why, next year, I am planning to take a year off to work at a bed and breakfast in France. People from all over the globe come to bed and breakfasts, which will give e a lot of face time with a lot of different cultures and learn a little bit about everything. My housing and dining will be paid for while I meet people, make lifelong connections and put all the things I learned about in cross cultural communication to work.
Cross Cultural Communication opened up my eyes to some pretty basic things that you just never really put names to. The best lesson I learned was on cultural empathy. A lot of my best friends are actually international and live in other countries. One of my best friends ever lives in Greece and looking back on our friendship, I realize how I subconsciously underwent the process of cultural empathy by asking her about the different practices she went through and the different ways she understood American culture and society. Unfortunately, I did not do the same with my German ex-boyfriend who lived in Germany which probably could have saved a lot of grief on my end. Another lesson I found interesting in cross-cultural communication was reflexivity.
Reflexivity is the ability and willingness of a researcher to acknowledge their bias. When I went to H Street, I realized my bias growing up in small town liberal suburbia. I realize my bias everyday when I meet people who grow up in different countries, parts of the country or even socio economic class. While interviewing Josh Parrish for my interview project, I saw how different our lives were and yet how similar we were. Reflexivity is not only important to acknowledge for reliable research, but for dependable relationships as well. Talking about white privilege really interested me throughout the course.
Growing up as white, I kind of always resented the doors that automatically opened for me in some sense of the word. Acknowledging the different presets in society is important to society and to be able to communicate with each other. If I could change one thing about this class, it would definitely be about the reading. The lessons I learned in cross cultural communication feel less immense than other classes, but I already notice how I look around and see how these lessons are applicable in real life. I constantly look back at my history and realize how helpful these skills would have been months and even years ago.
Being culturally empathetic is the most important lesson I could have learned and I feel was the overarching theme to the whole course. I found it helpful to learn how to properly acculturate into a foreign culture and while I may not become a foreign diplomat because of this class, I definitely learned some important imformation. Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down. com, Nov 30, Accessed January 7, com , Nov Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down Topics: Culture Human Nature.
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