An Encounter That Changed My Life
Marlene Severe is from Haiti. She is a student in ESOL Level 5 at the
Dunbar Community School. Her teacher is Mrs. Judy Peck.
America, You Have Changed My LifeMy name is Roberto Gabriel. I’m from Guatemala. I’ve
been living in the United States for about five years. I
studied in College when I was in Guatemala. My dream was
to work in a big corporation until I decided to migrate to the
United States. When I told my mom about it, she got mad at
me. She said that I was crazy. I called my brothers who
were already living here to find out if they could help me.
The first thing they told me was to keep studying and that
they were going to give me money to finish college. I never
believed what they said. For a month, I was trying to get my
mom to loan me some money. My sister helped me, too.
The day I left Guatemala, my mom burst into tears, which
left me without words to say. When I came here everything
looked different compared to my country. For example, in
Guatemala we get paid daily, not bimonthly. Nobody
speaks English at home, but at least here some people speak
Spanish so I’m able to understand what’s going on.
I couldn’t communicate with my coworkers, because I
couldn’t speak English at all. I bought some English books
to study, and then I went to an English class for about eight
months. I left the class, because I found a part-time night
job in a restaurant as a dishwasher. After a few weeks
working in that restaurant, I asked the manager whether I
could learn how to cook. He gave me the opportunity,
because someone had to leave to go back home to his
country. Since then I’ve been working as a cook. Now I can
cook breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I used to hate cooking
breakfast. It took me a while to learn how to flip an egg, but
now that’s what I like the most. I returned to Ms.
Josephson’s English Class about ten months ago. She is
nice and is also a very good teacher. I have been learning a
lot from her to help me do well with my life in America.
Though I work almost every day, each time I have a break I
go to class.