I was able to sit down with a friend of mine, Oscar Corral, who I had the opportunity of meeting this past September. I was able to ask him questions about his whole transition to moving to the United States, the struggles he faced, and the emotions he felt.
Oscar and his family moved here from “Chihuahua, Mexico from a small town called Meoqui.” He was already 16 and knew no English. When he began to tell me about why he moved here, I was utterly shocked. His family didn’t have a choice. His family was “afraid of the cartels who were taking over [his] hometown” but his family was also being threatened by the cartels. The cartels threatened his dad and said they were going to kill his wife and his children if he did not fix their cars for …show more content…
I spoke to Oscar specifically about his struggles with learning English, not his entire families struggle. He began to learn English when he started high school at Henry-Sibley. “The district and [his] parents agreed to hold [him] back two more years.” He was supposed to be starting his junior year, but instead went into his freshman. The program English Second Language (ESL) was the main help to him learning to speak English. There are four levels to the program, each level associated with the grade you are in. Students who take ESL “took those classes instead of World Literature like the rest of the students.” For his freshman and sophomore year in high school it was the biggest struggle because he “was not able to understand a lot of the words from classes” specifically science and history courses. Math was a lot easier for him to understand because it was the same in Mexico, but went at a slower pace. The language barriers he had faced at first made it difficult for him to be himself, “communicate, join clubs and sports, and make friends” because many students couldn’t speak spanish. By the time Oscar had finished high school, he was able to have full on conversations in English with other students, which many of the “latinos who had been living here for many years” were still not able to do because they never made “good efforts” to do
Oscar and his family moved here from “Chihuahua, Mexico from a small town called Meoqui.” He was already 16 and knew no English. When he began to tell me about why he moved here, I was utterly shocked. His family didn’t have a choice. His family was “afraid of the cartels who were taking over [his] hometown” but his family was also being threatened by the cartels. The cartels threatened his dad and said they were going to kill his wife and his children if he did not fix their cars for …show more content…
I spoke to Oscar specifically about his struggles with learning English, not his entire families struggle. He began to learn English when he started high school at Henry-Sibley. “The district and [his] parents agreed to hold [him] back two more years.” He was supposed to be starting his junior year, but instead went into his freshman. The program English Second Language (ESL) was the main help to him learning to speak English. There are four levels to the program, each level associated with the grade you are in. Students who take ESL “took those classes instead of World Literature like the rest of the students.” For his freshman and sophomore year in high school it was the biggest struggle because he “was not able to understand a lot of the words from classes” specifically science and history courses. Math was a lot easier for him to understand because it was the same in Mexico, but went at a slower pace. The language barriers he had faced at first made it difficult for him to be himself, “communicate, join clubs and sports, and make friends” because many students couldn’t speak spanish. By the time Oscar had finished high school, he was able to have full on conversations in English with other students, which many of the “latinos who had been living here for many years” were still not able to do because they never made “good efforts” to do