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Macaulay Honors College
at Baruch, Spring 2011Professor Els de Graauw
ITF Emily Sherwood -
Authors
▪ Alyssa Alicino
▪ Brandon Baksh
▪ Ru Xiao Chen
▪ Belinda Chiu
▪ Els de Graauw
▪ Becca Glickman
▪ Elisabeth Greenberg
▪ Doris Hu
▪ Peky Huang
▪ Toby Joseph
▪ Haesol Jun
▪ Nika Kartvelishvili
▪ Farrukh Khan
▪ Holly Kiang
▪ Julian Kipnis
▪ Kar Yi Lim
▪ Yang Lin
▪ Cait McCarthy
▪ Sofya Moshkovich
▪ Mariya Tuchinskaya
▪ Ying Zhang Login
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With a Little Help from a Friend
Antonio, a 43 year-old man who immigrated from Mexico, has been living in America for 28 years. When he first arrived to this country, he struggled with the English language:
Oh it was terrible. [laughing] Terrible! Can you imagine being in a foreign place and barely understanding what people are saying? I remember I had a little pocket dictionary with me most of the time or else I would be lost. New York is a big and scary place compared to Tlaxcala… Yeah, luckily I had my friend or else I wouldn’t what to do. His English was alittle better than mine and he knew more about here than I did. So I just followed him and did what he did. [chuckle] Man I would have been so dead without him.”
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Learning English
Many associate speaking, reading, and writing English with immigrants’ ability to integrate into the American society. According to the 2000 General Social Survey, 75 percent of Americans agreed with the statement that “speaking English is the common national language is what unites all Americans.” Immigrants come to the United States determined to start a new life, and they migrate here regardless of their proficiency in English. According to The Newest New Yorkers (2004), 48 percent of the foreign born aged 5 years and over in New York City were not English proficient in 2000, and for some immigrant groups a much larger percentage lacked English language skills. Learning English consequently is one of the biggest integration hurdles immigrants face. As immigrants attempt to learn English, and many are determined to do so, they face discrimination, helplessness, and more.
Below you will find an assortment of quotes where individual immigrants explain their experiences with learning English.
Click on another subcategory (Immigration Process, Encounters with Discrimination, Finding Employment, Political Participation & Citizenship, or Miscellaneous) to explore other quotations about the immigration process.
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The English Language: A Necessity
Alexandra, a 32-year-old Russian immigrant who has lived in the United States for 8 years, commented on the necessity for learning English:
Absolutely, especially for people who are planning to live here. I understand when people sometimes come here for few years, like for different reasons and go back, then it’s probably not necessary… Depends on what you want to do here, but if you are planning to live in America, absolutely. It is gonna become your country, you have to speak the language. There is no other way not to.”
Americanized
Johnny was born in Venezuela, grew up in Colombia, and moved to Queens, NY, for the first time at the age of 11. After some back and forth, he permanently settled in the United States at the age of 18 and now is 30 years old. When we talked about identity and notions of belonging, Johnny commented that his identity was heavily influenced by his experience with learning the English language:
Nowadays, well, if by American you mean a U.S. citizen, nowadays, yes. I speak in English now. Even though it is not my first language. […] I use it most of the time. So, I would say it occupies my thoughts, the way I communicate with people, the way I want to communicate with people, the way I actually plan my life. So, that makes me very much American. The industrialized way that I have been raised, here, to learn to do things on the snap, you know, go get this go pay for that, this is how you establish certain procedures and certain factors in your life – paying bills, going to school, it is pretty much at a pace where it matches an industrialized nation such as this, yeah I am very American. If I go back home, if I ask the time I expect the time. If I say I am going to be somewhere at 1 p.m. I will be at that place and do what I am supposed to do at 1 p.m. It’s not like that in Columbia. People basically chill. It’s not such a priority.”
Learning English From My Daughter
Jennifer moved to the United States from mainland China when she was 21 years old in 2002. She has been in the United States for more than eight years now. Jennifer said that she is slowly learning English, also with help from her daughter:
Now my daughter is at a stage and asks me a lot of questions. I know simple phrases and words in English. One day, she asked me how to say triangle in English. I answered her triangle is called “triangle.” Then, she asked me how to say rectangle in English. I did not know the answer. I felt bad. I really want to learn English. The other day, when my daughter came home from school, she happily told me that she learned how to say rectangle in English. She taught me. And I asked, how do your teacher ask for what shape is this? She told me, “What shape.” Because of my daughter, I learned a little more.”
The Importance of English
Antonio is a 43 year-old man who immigrated from Mexico and has been living in America for 28 years. When asked how important it was for him to learn the English language, he replied:
It was definitely very important. It is hard to do anything when you can’t tell other people what you want to do. My list of priorities when I got here was to find a job and learn some English. I didn’t have money to go to classes at the beginning, but later I had some money and time to go to night classes. As you can tell, my English is not perfect, but I am doing pretty well.”
I Took Second Grade with My Son
Carolina, a 48-year-old immigrant from Romania, relates one instance where her lack of English language skills was frustrating for both her and her son:
[There was one bad experience], in the first year when my son takes the 2nd grade, but he was supposed to be in the 3rd grade, and he had the teachers. And I went in the afternoon to pick him up and she try to explain me about my son work, and I said yes, yes, yes, and I don’t know if I understand like ten words of whatever she told me. And I come home and my son started crying because he didn’t understand whatever she asked him to do on his homework, and we took the dictionary and we were looking for each word what it is meaning. And it was really hard, because he didn’t know any English and the teacher put him in the line with the other kids that were in the class. It was hard. I took I think the second grade with my son at the same time, learning words in English [laughing]. […] I think that one I suffered a little bit, but I forget already and now you reminding me.”
I Forced Myself to Learn English
Carolina, a 48-year-old immigrant from Romania who has been in the United States for 13 years, now completely understands English and speaks it well enough that others understand her as well. She explains why she found it necessary to learn English:
No, no. They didn’t force me, but I forced myself because I have to live here. And if I didn’t know how to speak and I didn’t understand the people around me, I was supposed to find a job. I was supposed to speak some words in English at least to tell my name, phone number, blah blah blah, the address. I did it for myself, no one helped me. I paid for three months [of] second language learning.”
The Conglomerate of Nations and Language Diversity in NYC
When asked why she decided to live in New York City, Carolina, a 48-year-old immigrant from Romania, replied the following:
We know that New York is like a conglomerate of nations. They speak all the languages, the accent doesn’t bother too much and we live here easier like this than in other parts of America. We are accepted as with our accent.”
Just Pretend to Understand
Kevin is a Chinese immigrant who came to the United States in 2003 when he was 18 years old. He mentioned that he continues to have difficulty with comprehending English and sometimes he pretends to understand what others say:
I just learned to understand some topics. Sometimes they [are] jokes [and I’m] like how to hell [was that] so funny? It actually happens to me right now sometimes [and that] I don’t know that. So I’m like okay.”
Not the English I Learned Back Home
Kevin is a Chinese immigrant who migrated to the United States in 2003 when he was 18 years old. He commented that even though he learned English in China, he still had trouble speaking and understanding English here in New York City:
I mean like before… like after I came…. here I learned English for like few years before I come here, but when I go out, I just don’t really [know] what people are saying and I was like, “do I know English?” This was a foreign land! Like sometimes you know the accent and you know sometimes people speak so fast like really get some time to get used to.”
Learning Your A,B,C’s
Ivan came to America at the age of 15 from St. Petersburg, Russia. He is now 47, has a family, and works as a freelance computer programmer. When talking about his English language skills, Ivan told me (translated from Russian):
I did not speak English [when I came to the US]. I was learning French in school, in Russia. […] No, I did not take [English] classes. The year we came here, that summer I went to work in a camp and I picked up the language. Yes, of course, [by interacting with other people] and then school solidified and expanded on what I learned.”
You Need English to Get By
Choi immigrated to the United States from Korea about 10 years ago. She is now 46 years old. When asked what she does when in need of translation assistance, she replied,
Usually, I go to my son. His English is much better because he went to school here. Whenever I need to call the company to claim my money – because they do that a lot, they make all sorts of mistakes – I make my son do it. When he was younger, I used to call and ask for Korean translator, but they don’t help much and it’s easier to get my son to talk to them directly.”
You Can Only Improve So Much
Choi immigrated to the United States from Korea about 10 years ago. She is now 46 years old. She explained why it has been difficult for her to keep improving her English language skills:
So my English was getting better, but it stopped so I can make a living at my workplace. But since all my co-workers are Korean, I end up speaking more Korean than English.”
Not Enough Hours In a Day
Anna immigrated to the United States from China. She is now 49 years old and has been in the country for approximately 25 years. She commented that she because she had to work so much she didn’t have the time to learn English:
You hear so many stories about immigrants learning English and passing the citizenship test. […] There was no time for me to do anything besides work. Every day, wake up, eat, go to work, come home, eat, then sleep. That was how life was every day since I got out from that [immigration] prison. I had a few friends who got into these programs that taught them English, but that was during the weekends. I had to work. There was just no time to do it.”
Learning English Can Change Your Life
Alexandra, a 32-year-old Russian immigrant who has been in the United States for eight years, reflected on how learning English changed her life:
Well it [learning English] affected my life in a lot of different ways, because as soon as I was more or less comfortable with English I could get a better job […] at an American corporate company where I didn’t have to rely on people who speaks Russian, because I need someone to translate for me and help to understand.”
Language Barriers Cause Low Self Esteem
Alexandra, a 32-year-old Russian immigrant who has lived in the United States for eight years, shared her feelings about living in the United States without knowing English:
It’s a very hard feeling when you don’t understand people. […] It has an impact on your self esteem, because you want to speak, you want to express yourself, you want people to know who you are. And when you just silent because you don’t want to say anything and you don’t understand anything… it’s not a good feeling.”
