Adventures in Misunderstanding

Yesterday my students were assigned to discuss the book, Middle of Everywhere, by Mary Pipher. This book provides concepts for working effectively with immigrants and refugees. I looked around the room and realized that 11 of the 23 students in the room were themselves immigrants or refugees -- mostly refugees. I thought, "this is going to be good." Wise comments yes, but also funny things. We laughed over the following story. One student recounted that his mother, newly arrived in the country, accompanied him on errands. At the ATM, he took out some money. His mother observed that and began to berate him: "Son, if you could just go to a machine and get money, why did you wait so long to bring me for a visit?"