Personal Narrative : A New Home

My move from South Korea to the United States was to this day the hardest, most stressful event of my whole entire life. At the age of six, I gave up the comfort of my friends, culture, and home to move to a country halfway across the world. Korea was everything I knew and loved. Having never set foot outside of the country, all my dreams and aspirations were set in Korea. Although I was a fickle child and my goals changed constantly, they all were intertwined with Korea. I was going to become a pianist in Korea and teach piano to students. Another time, I decided I was going to become a math teacher at the school I was attending. My view of the world was limited, but I was happy in my familiar, safe place. My move to America changed my whole perspective.

My entire family was born in Guadalajara, Mexico. After three and a half years of living there my family decided to seek a better future in The United States. My father would go to the United States back and forth to work and earn money to send to us in Mexico. Eventually my mother was able to get a visa and my brother along with my little sister had an alternate way into the United States. We lived in Dallas Texas and Atlanta Georgia before settling in Howard county Maryland in a very small apartment. Luckily we were doing pretty well with my dad being the only one knowing English at the time. My father was working two jobs and I was getting ready to start kindergarten. I was very excited because the education we would have received in Mexico was nothing compared to the education in Howard County. I was excited for what was to come, but there were disadvantages of knowing only Spanish. Being bullied because of my poor English had an impact on me. I was in completely separate classes learning things that were simple compared to the regular course. I was excluded from certain activities, field trips and assemblies. I was clueless at first though as I slowly learned the language I understood things a lot more.

I was 14-year-old when I left my country to move to America in March 2012. When I heard I was moving to the United States, I was so delighted words cannot even describe how excited I was that day. I remember the night before my trip I could not sleep. I was excited because my whole family was going to be with me. My dad migrated to Florida four years before we came, therefore, I could not wait to see him again.

It has been four years since I came to the United States with my parents. As an immigrant, I realized everything here seemed really difficult for me to adjust my life. Having lived comfortably in Vietnam for over 18 years, I had to start everything from the beginning when I came here. At first, I thought things would be new and interesting in a new place. Later on, I gradually experienced the mental state called “culture shock.” For me, the difference in language and culture were among the biggest cultural barriers that I needed to overcome. However, I have always said to myself that I had to adapt to this circumstance. I believed this hard situation was a great opportunity to strengthen my capability. Therefore, I started to learn English

When I arrived here, no one in my family spoke english and my siblings had a rough time getting accustomed in school. Fortunately, I was lucky enough to start Kindergarten here and

This past year, I have been apart of Naperville Central’s brand new Special Spaces club. When my friend approached me and asked me to join, I agreed even though I had no clue what I was involving myself in. In retrospective, I can honestly say that becoming a part of Special Spaces has been one of the most meaningful, fun, and fulfilling experiences I have had in high school.

When I was young, my father brought the exciting news that we had to move to Italy due to his job. It was nerve wracking as well because we only had a few days to move and it was a transition that would change our lives forever. At first, I was sad because it meant that I had to leave all my family and friends but once we moved that sadness diminished. Italy is the most beautiful place I have ever lived at. We moved to a small town called Latina, where we were living in a hotel. A few blocks away was our school where we began to attend right when we moved. I started Kindergarten there. The challenging part of it was the language barrier. Even though Italian language is similar to the spanish language it was difficult to learn it so quickly.

I was about nine years old when I first came to the United States from Haiti. Although I was old enough to understand that we were moving, I did not quite understand the importance of the move and why my mom kept referring to America as the land of opportunities. In the beginning, I hated everything, I did not know the language, I missed my friends, I missed Haiti, I missed the familiarity of things. However, my mom constantly reminded me that this is for the best, that our lives have changed for the better. So, I nodded and continued to be unhappy until I started to understand the language, until I started making new friends, until I missed Haiti less and less, and until the United States became home.

When I first started school, I remember how difficult it was for me to make the transition from Spanish to English. My Mom left me at the door of the school in the morning, but since I was placed in an English-only classroom, the next time I opened my mouth to speak to anyone was when she picked me up again that afternoon. I didn't know what anyone was saying around me, and to make matters worse, my teacher didn't speak a single word of Spanish. That day, like every other day, I came home crying because I felt like an outsider. That year was very difficult for me because I ended up in the back corner of the classroom not participating. As a result, I had to take several years of summer school in order to catch up, something that

When I arrived to the United States I faced a challenging situation in my life, I didn’t know English. This challenging as I didn’t know how to communicate with any of my teachers or classmates, and I wasn’t able to do any of my work. Not being able to participate in class upsetted me because in Mexico I was use to doing all my classwork and homework. Therefore, I decided that I was going to do everything in my power to learn English quickly. So, when the my ESL teacher announced to my parents that they were going to have to take to school during the summer, I didn’t mind at all. When I was in summer school I learned a lot of English due to my determination and my hard work. Looking back I wouldn’t do things differently because I know that

I was forced to come to America at the age of 13, knowing only Spanish. My junior year career was not pleasant because of that factor. I started off with four classes that were meant to teach me English. I was distraught and confused. I left my friends, my dad, and my life to come here. I was not comfortable at all. I felt alone, but I was not alone, there was another 12 students with the same obstacles as me. Now at the age of 18 I am proud of what I overcame and I can truly say these three strategies assisted me while overcoming my obstacle, Lifelong learning, develop mutually supportive relationship and believing in yourself.

When I was in 6th grade, one afternoon, when I got home my parents where waiting in our living room to tell me that we needed to immigrated to the U.S.A. This memory is so vivid in my mind because it changed my entire life. I had grown up in a small town where the economy was based in agriculture, but with the years the lack of consumption had cause the economy to fall. We could have stayed and maybe survived but the opportunity of receiving our green card and the chances it came with where impossible to reject. After the first year of emotional rollercoaster where I had ups and downs I can say that I had successfully adjusted to the new school system. I was a regular student but even thought I struggle with the language barrier I was always

I was only nine years old when we left. My three younger brothers and I had traveled abroad to Mali a country in West Africa. At the time I thought that I would only be visiting but in reality I would spend eight years of my childhood in this foreign land.

Born in one country and educated in another was hurtful. Moving from Panama because my mother got married to someone in the military and relocating to Arizona, began the worst childhood of my life. When you speak and you’re not understood. That was me. I spoke English or so I thought and the kids in school would make fun of me. Some of the teacher would get upset at me.

I never thought I was going to be in Florida. It impacted my life tremendously. I knew I had to learn a different language. My English level was steady. I knew I had to improve my English. I worked on it twice as hard as when I was in Mexico. In school when people talked to me and asked questions, I was afraid to answer back, because I was unsure if I said it wrong or not. I had to overcome it and pronto. Making friends in school was easy, because I guess they are curious where I’m from or wanted to know my name in Spanish.