By David Gordon, associate editor
The key role of language in preserving immigrant groups’ cultures was on display Monday night (Feb. 11) in a discussion that combined a Norwegian perspective with insights into Hmong culture and its transition into an American context.
The program, sponsored by the Waldemar Ager Association, was the first in its “Conversations about Immigrant Identity” series marking the 150th anniversary this year of Ager’s birth. It provided Hmong perspectives on assimilation into American society that had elements in common with Ager’s thoughts about the Norwegian experience a century earlier.
Ager believed that “language was the soul of the people” and was essential to preserve all aspects of Norwegian tradition and culture, according to Tim Hirsch, who introduced the program. Hirsch is a member of the Ager Association’s program committee and, on Mar. 22, he will discuss Ager’s place as a writer among his American contemporaries.
Monday’s panelists – Khoua Vang, Pa Sia Moua and True Vue – picked up on the importance of language in regard to both changes in, and the preservation of, Hmong culture in this country. Vang is a Hmong language instructor at UW-Eau Claire and a teacher at Flynn Elementary School; Moua is also a teacher at Flynn; and Vue is a bilingual education assistant at Locust Lane Elementary School.
Panelists’ presentations
The panelists – especially Vang – provided an overview of a large amount of Hmong history, which dates back perhaps to ancient Middle Eastern origins and includes many centuries in China. By the late 1800s, many Hmong had migrated to Laos, but large numbers of them fled to Thailand in the 1970s when a Communist regime came to power in Laos.
Hmong immigration to the United States, including to Eau Claire, originated mainly from the refugee camps in Thailand.
Among the immigrants’ traditions that conflicted with American societal values was one that pegged the social hierarchy as descending from elders to men to children and then to women. As Hmong women went through the American education system, they increasingly felt they should be regarded as equal to the men, Moua said.
“As we got older, our voices became stronger,” she said, adding that her father respected the education that his daughters obtained. “Having his support and his understanding makes a difference for us.”
Other clashes in traditions included such things as invitations (or not) to weddings and other celebrations, forms of greeting people and titles of respect. American customs in regard to these and other aspects of life were puzzling to the older Hmong generation, particularly as the next generation began adopting them, Moua said.
The Hmong custom is that, “once you meet someone, you have (a) relationship with them” indefinitely, she said. This makes individual invitations to weddings unnecessary because “everyone is invited,” since you know them.
Importance of language
Vue said that the Hmong language “really gives us our identity” and she is glad her parents insisted that only Hmong be spoken at home.
She noted that there are 14 different Hmong dialects, and people who speak one are often unable to understand others. She added that Hmong is a tonal language, and demonstrated eight different tones which give different meanings to the same word.
These factors make it difficult for her generation to keep the language alive, and it is even harder for the next generation. About half of her Hmong students at Locust Lane speak only English, which is a major reason she established a Hmong History and Culture Club at the school, Vue said.
The response has been quite positive, and the group meets regularly during recess or over breakfast in the cafeteria, she said.
Some 50 people attended the 75-minute program at the L. E. Phillips Memorial Public Library.
Next program
The next program in the Ager Association’s series, at 7 p.m. on Feb. 28 at the library, will feature local historian Brian Blakeley, who recently published the first book in a series on the history of Eau Claire. Blakeley will discuss how the city responded to Ager’s work and his championing of an American society in which ethnic groups would retain much of their uniqueness and thereby strengthen the nation.
Ager moved to Eau Claire in 1892, after emigrating from Norway to Chicago in 1885. Here, he worked for and later owned a Norwegian-language weekly newspaper and for 17 years also edited the quarterly journal of The Norwegian Society of America. He died in 1941.
Note: the home page image is an example of tapestries that illustrate Hmong history, folklore and traditional ways of life.
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