Last fall, Elissa had the opportunity to interview some Karen youth in St. Paul, MN. They met at a Karen grocery store, shared a meal together, and talked about various aspects of the Karen culture. We have divided this interview into a four part series: Culture, Immigration, Family and Faith, and Food and Holidays. For authenticity, we have transcribed the interview material as accurate as possible.
The Karen People
We encourage our readers to visit the Karen Organization of Minnesota website in order to learn more about the history and culture of the Karen people.
Part 1: Culture
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| The interviewees |
Elissa: Within Karen culture what is the definition of success?
Re: I think success it is someone who is achieving their dreams and has a stable job and have a place to live.
Kyeh: Yeah, I would say people who do a career that they love. My parents whenever they see a doctor they are like, “Oh, there is a doctor,” and they say that person is, you know, very successful and tell me that I should do that, too, you know. They think that those people are very [successful].
Re: It is mostly people who work in a professional job; that’s how my parents see it. They say things like they must be very successful since they are a police officer or doctors or in a well-known career.
Kyeh: They don’t have to be just successful in that but in life, like a person with loving family and are doing what they love to do.
Elissa: Is punctuality important in your culture?
Re: I think it is important, but I feel like in my culture people always run late for stuff. It's like when they planned to do something at that time, they always end up doing it like one hour later.
Kyeh: I think being on time is very important, cause growing up with my parents they always told me be on time, because they would say that time is very important, like choose your time because time is not waiting for you. It better if you wait for time, but time is not going to wait for you.
Elissa: How important is education in the Karen culture?
Re: [In] my culture and within my family I think that education is really important, too, because before when we were living in the refugee camp we don’t have that much education and were all [for] education in America and immigrated here. A lot of families who immigrate to America, they immigrate with the hope to get a good education.
Kyeh: For me specifically, my parents they know education is important even though they do not have one, but they know it is very important. In our culture now since we are in a new country and were learning new stuff, I think modern people we think that education is very important, but back in the old day with our ancestors, education wasn't that important. There is a saying that whether you have education or you don't, you are still eating rice.
Elissa: What is your native language?
Re: Karen
Kyeh: Karen
Elissa: Are there differences within the Karen language?
Re: Yeah. There is Karen and then Sha Karen and West Po Karen. There is a lot of differences in Karen.
Kyeh: There is Karen and then Sha Karen, but there can be different tones within that, too.
Elissa: So, do you in general understand all other Karen people or is there a lot that you don't understand?
Elissa: Ok. That is really cool and interesting to know.
Elissa: What is considered most disrespectful in your culture?
Re: I would say that you have to come home early and be on time, like before eight. My brother used to always come home late, and he would get in trouble with my mom. Also, just being respectful to parents and elders.
Elissa: Ok, so what is considered most respectful?
Kyeh: It is more like helping your people, cause with Karen you know not a lot of people know us or our culture and community. Like a lot of us still don’t know how to speak English. So, it’s important to help one another especially when we first come to the states.
Elissa: What is a commonly held misconception about your culture?
Kyeh: I think it's more that like a majority of people still don't know Karen and who the Karen are. We still have to help people know our identity, cause most people don’t know us and who we are. People think that we are a different group of Asian, you know, like Chinese, and I'm not Chinese, you know.
Elissa: So, the misconception is more so being grouped together with all types of Asian identities instead of being known as being Karen?
Htoo: A lot of times when we say we are Karen, people think we are saying Korean.
Re: Every time somebody asks, “Oh, what is your nationality?” and I say, “Karen,” they’re like, “Oh, Korean,” and I'm like, No, Karen.”
Elissa: Have you ever experienced racism?
Re: No, I don't think so.
Elissa: Have you ever felt like you were treated differently because you are Karen or because you are a refugee?
Htoo: I feel like sometimes other people they look down on you and act like you don't understand, and then they act like it is ok for them to disrespect you because they think that you don’t know what they are saying or doing. Not everyone, but sometimes that is how I have felt.
Elissa: What can be done to help people understand other cultures? What do you think? You guys are so young, so I was wondering what you think we can we do to get people to better understand each other with all these different cultures.
Kyeh: Travelling. I feel like in order to learn about somebody else’s culture you have to be willing to learn and explore things yourself. To engage with people from other cultures, you are asking them questions so they can learn.
Htoo: You could go to Karen new Year and go and talk to the Karen people there.
Re: Yeah, just go up and see what they are doing and go and taste the food.
Elissa: Yeah, don’t forget to taste the food. I think it is one of the most important things. Eat the food.
Elissa: Do you feel like Karen youth still really identify with their culture, because I know that it can be difficult acclimating to a new culture and being Karen and a refugee and then growing up as a teenager in American culture. So how do you balance those things?
Kyeh: It is really hard, especially when you have siblings that are younger, too, and sometimes it seems like they don’t know how to learn and write and use our language anymore. Like my parents are like, “You guys should learn how to do your own language now.” It is kind of hard, because they don't always understand when you speak to them. So, they just have to try hard to learn it.
Elissa: So, they can speak and understand it but don’t always know how to write it, and they can’t read it.
Re: I say that some of them are really hard, like when we are at school, me and my sister we can speak English but at home my parents are like, “No, you need to speak Karen,” because they don’t want us to like lose our language.
Elissa: Yeah, I can understand why your language is super important to them, because language is an important part of culture.
Re: I think success it is someone who is achieving their dreams and has a stable job and have a place to live.
Kyeh: Yeah, I would say people who do a career that they love. My parents whenever they see a doctor they are like, “Oh, there is a doctor,” and they say that person is, you know, very successful and tell me that I should do that, too, you know. They think that those people are very [successful].
Re: It is mostly people who work in a professional job; that’s how my parents see it. They say things like they must be very successful since they are a police officer or doctors or in a well-known career.
Kyeh: They don’t have to be just successful in that but in life, like a person with loving family and are doing what they love to do.
Elissa: Is punctuality important in your culture?
Re: I think it is important, but I feel like in my culture people always run late for stuff. It's like when they planned to do something at that time, they always end up doing it like one hour later.
Kyeh: I think being on time is very important, cause growing up with my parents they always told me be on time, because they would say that time is very important, like choose your time because time is not waiting for you. It better if you wait for time, but time is not going to wait for you.
Elissa: How important is education in the Karen culture?
Re: [In] my culture and within my family I think that education is really important, too, because before when we were living in the refugee camp we don’t have that much education and were all [for] education in America and immigrated here. A lot of families who immigrate to America, they immigrate with the hope to get a good education.
Kyeh: For me specifically, my parents they know education is important even though they do not have one, but they know it is very important. In our culture now since we are in a new country and were learning new stuff, I think modern people we think that education is very important, but back in the old day with our ancestors, education wasn't that important. There is a saying that whether you have education or you don't, you are still eating rice.
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| The Karen language |
Elissa: What is your native language?
Re: Karen
Kyeh: Karen
Elissa: Are there differences within the Karen language?
Re: Yeah. There is Karen and then Sha Karen and West Po Karen. There is a lot of differences in Karen.
Kyeh: There is Karen and then Sha Karen, but there can be different tones within that, too.
Elissa: So, do you in general understand all other Karen people or is there a lot that you don't understand?
Elissa: Ok. That is really cool and interesting to know.
Elissa: What is considered most disrespectful in your culture?
Re: I would say that you have to come home early and be on time, like before eight. My brother used to always come home late, and he would get in trouble with my mom. Also, just being respectful to parents and elders.
Elissa: Ok, so what is considered most respectful?
Kyeh: It is more like helping your people, cause with Karen you know not a lot of people know us or our culture and community. Like a lot of us still don’t know how to speak English. So, it’s important to help one another especially when we first come to the states.
Elissa: What is a commonly held misconception about your culture?
Kyeh: I think it's more that like a majority of people still don't know Karen and who the Karen are. We still have to help people know our identity, cause most people don’t know us and who we are. People think that we are a different group of Asian, you know, like Chinese, and I'm not Chinese, you know.
Elissa: So, the misconception is more so being grouped together with all types of Asian identities instead of being known as being Karen?
Htoo: A lot of times when we say we are Karen, people think we are saying Korean.
Re: Every time somebody asks, “Oh, what is your nationality?” and I say, “Karen,” they’re like, “Oh, Korean,” and I'm like, No, Karen.”
Elissa: Have you ever experienced racism?
Re: No, I don't think so.
Elissa: Have you ever felt like you were treated differently because you are Karen or because you are a refugee?
Htoo: I feel like sometimes other people they look down on you and act like you don't understand, and then they act like it is ok for them to disrespect you because they think that you don’t know what they are saying or doing. Not everyone, but sometimes that is how I have felt.
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| A Karen family |
Elissa: What can be done to help people understand other cultures? What do you think? You guys are so young, so I was wondering what you think we can we do to get people to better understand each other with all these different cultures.
Kyeh: Travelling. I feel like in order to learn about somebody else’s culture you have to be willing to learn and explore things yourself. To engage with people from other cultures, you are asking them questions so they can learn.
Htoo: You could go to Karen new Year and go and talk to the Karen people there.
Re: Yeah, just go up and see what they are doing and go and taste the food.
Elissa: Yeah, don’t forget to taste the food. I think it is one of the most important things. Eat the food.
Elissa: Do you feel like Karen youth still really identify with their culture, because I know that it can be difficult acclimating to a new culture and being Karen and a refugee and then growing up as a teenager in American culture. So how do you balance those things?
Kyeh: It is really hard, especially when you have siblings that are younger, too, and sometimes it seems like they don’t know how to learn and write and use our language anymore. Like my parents are like, “You guys should learn how to do your own language now.” It is kind of hard, because they don't always understand when you speak to them. So, they just have to try hard to learn it.
Elissa: So, they can speak and understand it but don’t always know how to write it, and they can’t read it.
Re: I say that some of them are really hard, like when we are at school, me and my sister we can speak English but at home my parents are like, “No, you need to speak Karen,” because they don’t want us to like lose our language.
Elissa: Yeah, I can understand why your language is super important to them, because language is an important part of culture.
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