There is a tragedy for every triumph, a mountain climbed for every journey finished, and a story for every seeming imperfection.
For non-native English speakers, the focus is far too often on surface-level, so-called flaws, defined by what they cannot pronounce and do not understand.
But the truth is, every imperfectly conjugated verb, every clipped r and clumsy mispronunciation, is not a defect but rather a mark of resilience.
While English is commonly taught as a second language across the world, students with only a basic grasp on the language must, once in the US, grapple with everything from navigating small talk to writing academic essays.
“I feel like I just was born yesterday,” sophomore Thu Anh Nguyen said. “Using other second language feel[s] like I walk into new world. Sometime[s] [it] feel[s] special but some[times] it will cost me much problem with test and assignments.”
Nguyen was born in Vietnam. While she started learning English in first grade, she said she didn’t really focus on it until, two years ago, her dad told her that they were going to America.
“The process for me, I think it’s not good because I was just focus[ing] on words for words and not actually practice much as speaking and listening, which is the most important…to know when come to new country,” Nguyen said.
ESL (English as a Second Language) teacher Anitra Shaw has two classes a day with students like Nguyen, where they cover everything from literary text analysis to formal versus informal language, sometimes with the help of translation devices. Shaw said there’s often simply “not enough time”.
“We have certain barriers against us as ESL teachers because the students are learning just like English 1 and English 2 classes, and on top of that, I am supposed to teach them language,” Shaw said. “They haven’t always learned that topic in their first language in their school, like how to do evidence or how to make a claim or what a theme is, and so I have to work with all of those missing pieces from previous educational backgrounds and countries and then the language.”
Senior Damaris Vega, who moved to the US from Monterrey, Mexico last August, can understand English proficiently but has trouble expressing herself to other people.
“Since I understand English, I can understand what the teachers are saying, and it’s not so difficult for me to understand,” Vega said. “[But] right now, I really miss being in my country. It’s difficult for me to socialize with other people. So it’s a very strange feeling.
While Vega plans to return to Mexico next year for college, she said her knowledge of English as a universal language is still something good. This year, she tested out of ESL and is in a regular English class.
“I’m probably more proud than their parents are…I get excited,” Shaw said. “The earliest I can get them out of my class, the better so that they can, they can work faster in an on-level, they make more friends, hopefully, meet more people and experience that. I don’t want more kids in my class, even though some teachers would love that. But for me, I’m just like, no, it benefits them more to be out there.”
Although Senior Xi Feng, who moved to the US from China in 2019, did not have to take ESL in high school, classes heavy on vocabulary were still difficult — he said he almost failed AAC biology. With time, though, he said he has seen “tremendous progress” in his comfort level speaking and using English for school and life.
“When you communicate with people who don’t speak your mother tongue, the benefits are obvious: you can communicate with them [and] it’s not just a superficial greeting,” Feng said. “On the other hand, when you search for something on the Internet, you feel that the things you search for in a language are more limited. You can search for relevant information in English.”
While students may leave ESL, the impact of taking ESL — a class that is a true cultural melting pot of students from across the world — is long-lasting. Shaw loves to do international days, where everyone shares food from their cultures, and she often sees students helping each other.
“I think there’s a lot of ignorance when you don’t know people from other places and other experiences,” Shaw said. “As you get more education, you can also learn, and I don’t just mean through schooling, but in general. You can learn so much about how things happen in the world and about other types of people, and then it makes you a better person if you allow it to.”
Nguyen tested out of ESL this year — looking back, she thanks “Ms. Shaw, my lovely teacher I met helping this kid new as everything”. While Nguyen said being an immigrant has changed the way she expresses herself, the language-learning process hasn’t changed her personality.
“I’m still me,” Nguyen said. “Of course, sometime[s] I feel embarrassed but then I thought I’m the one know two languages. I just speak English because that’s the only language that they can understand me.”
