Settling In Palmerston North and Feilding - Human Rights Commission

Women• ‘Some experienced discomfort when stared at because of wearing a veil, but this was not a serious problem.’• ‘One woman speaker said, ‘It is nice to be a woman in NZ. We can drive a car and have more freedom. My husband even helps with thehousework’’.• ‘Although many women come from traditional backgrounds, they do not want to be restricted just to mother and housewife roles. They do hopeto be involved in enjoyable activities outside their homes.’Retaining Culture• ‘No place to learn Indonesian culture’• ‘Cultural awareness/retention – slightly a problem – not used to western culture, now everyone is adjusted and still retains the Filipinoculture.’• ‘Culture and tradition still count most – children should show respect to their parents.’• ‘Lack of appreciation of values, customs and traditions learnt from homeland.’• ‘Wearing hijab – tolerance, acceptance, extent and quality of interactions all could be a concern. Wearing hijab does not give the women anopportunity to get jobs easily.’• ‘We are given privilege to participate in various activities such as festival of cultures; our meager contribution to our respective churches arebeing recognised and we are well treated as members of the family, indicating that our ethnic identities are being respected.’SETTLING IN PALMERSTON NORTH AND FEILDING34Children• ‘Children shows respect and I need to be more actively involved in the community – promote my own culture’• ‘I would really love to have language learning and cultural immersion for the children – to preserve the culture.’• ‘Motivation of children to keep language and cultural values.’• ‘How to teach children Chinese cultural values.’Language• ‘Many migrants reported having a particular difficulty understanding the NZ accent, finding North American and received English accents mucheasier to follow. (This could reflect teaching in the countries of origin.)’• ‘She experienced culture shock, not used to the faster NZ accent. As a result was embarrassed to communicate so tended to keep quiet.’• ‘She was used to American accents rather than the Kiwi accent. Language problem (difficult to understand the English accent).’• ‘Many people found it hard to meet New Zealanders, and thus did not have many opportunities to practice their English. English is not the worstbarrier but how to show yourselves to the society (community) and let people know you in many ways by arousing their interest and need fromyou.’• ‘Language and culture barriers: not understanding jokes, jargon’• ‘Maintaining mother’s Chinese tongue and at the same time learning English’Children• ‘I want to learn Indonesian language in school. I started to forget the language.’ (6 year old)• ‘Mentions that it is difficult to maintain the language alive for her child, because they mostly speak English! I would really love to have languagelearning and cultural immersion for the children – to preserve the culture.’• ‘Lack of strong support for children to learn the second language (English)’• ‘Motivation of children to keep language and cultural values.’Diversity in Schools• ‘Lack of culture sensitivity (consideration of other languages ie. arabic language) – one mother said that when her daughter took a class inCollege of Education, which she later on dropped it as she couldn’t stand being in the class – the daughter observation of the class was thestudents are not taught to be tolerant to other culture but Maori. Some lecturers are teaching students to generalise certain ethnic group ie.Chinese, Middle Eastern.’• ‘In the school, we need the respect to become one of the issues that children should learn it. Not only using the good manners such as sayingthanks or pleases, but respect other culture believes and traditions.’• ‘Religion practices at risk – prayers, dress code, fastings, diet, kids can’t go to Friday prayer because it happen during school time etc.’• ‘Some books at school contain wrong information about others. For example, there was a book talking about boy from Egypt who goes schoolwith camel. This information is completely wrong as we only have camels around historical places such as Pyramids just as a tourism tool. Ifchildren receive right information, it will make it different.’• ‘Teachers should have correct background about other cultures to be able to make the distance short between NZ culture and others.’• ‘Religion practices at risk – Children not able to perform obligatory prayers at school.’• ‘At the school, my children refuse to eat their lunch due to other tell them “your food is stinky”.’• ‘When my son try to explain what is the meaning of EAD ADHA (when we celebrate Hajj and scarified a lamb to give it to poor people) teacherand children laugh. My son embarrassed and came home crying and asking what is wrong in my talk.’• ‘Put Chinese back into school curriculum’• ‘Children’s difficulty in getting used to the environment and they had to learn English to communicate with other people. Problem in socializationwith playmates.’• ‘Prejudice treatment from new classmates that someone from outside can not speak English fluently although that was not always the case.’