Welcoming Families From Around the World

I work for a social service agency and my boss comes to me and tell me that she has added a family from Berlin, Germany to case load. I know nothing about Germany and never traveled there before.  So the first thing I do is go to the internet and start to do research.  The first thing I would research is the language. A teacher that I looked up to once told me, it is good to learn little wrongs in the families native tongue so that you can use them with the family. It is little things like that, that makes the families feel important.  Then I research traditions, getting to know the things that they do and celebrate would help the family know that you care. I would research religion because it is not important to everyone but to so people it is. I will not know if they are religious until at get to meet them, but i can have a little knowledge on the religion in Germany. I would research education systems because I can know how the teachers teach and some of the methods that they used. I get to know what kind of learning style they are used to. The last thing I would research is food just because it is interesting to know what kinds of food they eat. Everyone loves food. I believe that all these things are important when to know when getting to know a family. Having more knowledge on the all these thing would prepare me a little about the family. But who’s to say that the information I researcher is accurate about this family. When I first meet the family I make them feel comfortable with me so that I could get to know more about them from them.  This is the best way to get to know them in my opinion.