Getting to know your community members: The Yasser Family

BY YOMN YASSER

Apollo Elementary Family

My name is Yomn. My husband and I moved to the U.S. from Cairo, Egypt, in 2016. We lived in California for a year before moving to Seattle in 2017. It was not an easy decision for us to move to the U.S. as we thought it would be challenging to raise our girls and have them connected to their Egyptian/Arabic roots and culture. But to our surprise, it wasn’t as challenging as we thought it would be!

We were blessed to live in the greater Seattle area, where diversity is at its peak. True, we barely see the sun, but I guess you can’t have everything.

Coming from an Arabic background, I encountered a lot of contradicting feedback, mostly positive. Still, there are a lot of misconceptions about Arabs and their culture (Thank you, Hollywood!) that I felt like it would be great if people were open enough to see what’s behind the stereotype.

The Arab culture is very diverse and rich; it contains many countries with lots of history. When you say Arab, it includes any country with a first/official language as Arabic, which extends from Morocco in the far west of North Africa all the way to the Arabian Gulf and the Middle East.

The one common thing between all these Arab countries is that they speak the classical Arabic language even though each country has its own dialect. For example, as an Egyptian, I speak Arabic differently than my Syrian friends. This also applies to the culture, traditions, and cooking as well.

For me, the Arabic language is so beautiful and mystical, not just because it’s my native language, but the more I learn about it, the more I’m fascinated with it.

For example, a simple vowelization /vocalization written over the letter can change the whole meaning of the word; see next picture.

The language is so rich that the word love has 28 words to describe it, depending on the level of love and what/ who you love.

The Arabic language is so unique with its alphabet, which has letters that don’t even exist in other languages. With two girls in the Issaquah School District for the past couple of years and especially within our school, I felt that their teachers were really welcoming to our culture and language. I remember how excited they were when they walked into the school hallway and saw the word “أهلا ” which means “welcome” in Arabic.

And how proud my youngest felt when her teacher asked if she speaks a different language at home, and she replied, “Yes. We speak Arabic.” And her teacher said, “Wow! You are bilingual. That’s awesome!” The small gestures always make the biggest impact in our kids’ hearts and minds.

District-wise, I appreciate everything the District is doing to make everyone feel included. However, I always feel like there is a place for improvements, such as acknowledging our Islamic holidays in the newsletter, seeing more Arabic words and sentences, and maybe more multicultural nights if possible.

One idea that I always had in the back of my mind was what if every school had one day per week where they ask a student who speaks a second language to say a sentence in their language and translate it to English on the school radio. This way, the kids speaking another language feel heard and recognized, other kids speaking the same languages feel like they are not the only bilingual students in school, and last, but not least, this will enrich all students getting exposed to other cultures and languages all year round, not just throughout one or two events per year.

Feeling heard, seen, and accepted is what we all wish for our kids at school every day. I always tell my girls that everyone is unique in their own way. We are not born to fit in but to stand out with our experiences and differences, and I hope my girls and all kids get that they are unique in their own way.