ESL... A Traumatic Experience!

I’m sure it was very tough for many people who didn’t speak English to learn this language. However, for me it wasn’t just hard, it was a traumatic experience.

I remember when I just started going to my English courses at La Guardia CC. I had this professor who liked to talk to each student individually the first day of class. When it was my turn I “tried” to tell her I felt uncomfortable being in the third level and I wanted to move one level down. (I don’t know why they put me on this advanced level if I only knew a few words).

Well, the thing is that after she finally figured out what I was trying to say, she started talking and talking and… talking (only God knows what she said). I was just looking at her asking myself, “Doesn’t she notice I’m not getting any word coming out of her mouth?” (After all, that was the reason for which I wanted to change the level). At the end I said “ok” to whatever she’d told me as if everything was clear to me, but when she looked at me, she noticed I was still confused, so she said slowly: “You… here… tomorrow… ok? When I heard that my face turned into a big smile, and it wasn’t because I actually wanted to be in that class, but because with four words I had finally understood what she said in ten minutes.

Feeling Lonely in NYC

After a couple of weeks of living in New York City, I started to feel as if I didn’t really belong here. I had nobody to talk to. Although I lived with my parents and my sister, I missed all my relatives and my old friends. Of course I was in contact with them through the internet but that wasn’t enough for me. I needed them to be with me physically. For the first time in my life I felt this emptiness inside me, and I wished so deeply to go back to Mexico.

I thought it was ironic to live in a big city with thousands of people, and still feel like you are alone. Seriously, it was just weird getting on crowded trains or walking on congested streets and being around people without saying a word. That gave me the impression that Americans were kind of “cold,” unlike the “friendly” people I used to see in my hometown.

However, it took me a while to realize that “it’s New York!” People live in their own worlds. They have their own worries. They don’t have time for outsiders, and it’s not because they don’t care about them, it’s because that’s the way Americans see life (remember “time is money”).

What’s good to know is that outsiders get used to that ideology. We just need time to familiarize ourselves with “American culture.”

"Welcome to New York City"

The first thing I noticed on the plane which was ready to land at JFK airport, was the beautiful view of the city. From my small window I could see an endless number of dark brown bloks, which were the buildings' roofs. There were also some green areas, but not as many as I thought I would find. The rest of the view was blue. Everything looked so perfect from up there, a perfect place to live in, with perfect buildings/houses, and perfect people...

Suddenly, I heard the voice of the pilot over the itercom. From all the things he said I undestood nothing but one phrase: "Welcome to New York City." I was very excited to be in a new place however, I had this feeling which made me feel nervous and insecure, because everything I heard aroud me was people speaking in other language. At that time I barely undestood English, so for me not knowing the official language of this country became my biggest "problem," and that was just the beginning...

Now enjoy the video.

Why do we use blogs?

We can use blogs for many things; to express our thoughts, to give an opinion about any or a particular matter, and to interact with people without knowing them.
In my case, I'll use this space to post experiences I've had since I came to New York. Some of them will be funny, even embarrassing. You'll see.