While growing up I was not like most other kids in my school. My mother imigrated here to the U.S. in 1988. I was only three at the time and I don’t remember much from that age. But what I do recall is having to learn English from that age on.
the first several years of school was really hard for me. I was struggling to keep up with my fellow classmates while trying to learn English. Although the school I attended offered ESL to assist me, it didn’t help much. Reason being, at the end of the school day I would return home where hardly any English was spoken. So in many ways than one, I didn’t have much practice outside of school. making progress very difficult.
Although the majority of my family are first generation immigrants, they are without some form of English skills. But the thing with first generation immigrant families, my household in this case, is that they tend to communicate in ways that they are comfortable with. In situations such as this, English is seldom spoken and practiced.
Several years have progressed since then and so has my English speaking skills. I noticed hat my communication skills has improved much over those years and things have become much easier in day to day activities. But there is one thing that still remains the same today, my thought process hasn’t change much. Most kids that were born and raised here tend to think in the language that they groomed up with. So to those lucky many, thought process is quite easier. But in my case, more times than once, i find myself interpreting things in my native tongue and in the language that I’ve learned over these years, English. I find that this becomes very conflicting at times.
