Here, with the permission of the author (who prefers to remain anonymous), is one of them:
What Adult School Means To Me
I came to the United States because of my husband’s decision. It took me one year to decide to move to the U.S. because I didn’t want to lose my stable life in my country, including my job. When I came to the U.S., I could speak only a few English sentences, even though I had learned English grammar for several years in my country. I was disappointed with myself because I couldn’t ask a teacher if my son had problems, and I couldn’t make small talk if a cashier started to talk to me. My early life in the U.S. made me feel miserable and worthless. I refused to go outside, and I despised myself because I couldn’t integrate in my new life. When I lost self-confidence in living in the U.S., I found out about adult education in a brochure. I decided to learn practical English at San Mateo Adult School.
First of all, the office staff is very tolerant. When I registered at the office, they waited patiently until I finished talking, and then they explained school systems to me with a smile and respect. I felt it was the first time that people speaking English treated me equally. And also, teachers in this school are very dedicated, and they are trying to give us the most valuable classwork each semester. Now I’m taking grammar, writing, and distance learning classes. In grammar class, my teacher teaches us, not only grammar, but also news topics, American culture, American history, and so on. In my writing class, my teacher goes over my writing with me, so I can learn natural English by rewriting many times. And she also teaches us how to write paragraphs with topic, supporting, and concluding sentences. Even though my vocabulary is quite small, I really feel I’m improving in my other English skills.
Second, I have a chance to make friends here. There are many students from a variety of countries in a wide age range, and they are studying hard with the same aim, improving in English skills or acquiring new skills. Until I came to school, my world in the U.S. was very small, and no one tried to talk to me because of my lack of conversational skill. But every student in this school tries to communicate with each other, so I made friends with students from different cultures and languages throughout the world. At this school, we have a fun event, International Day. On that day, students prepare and bring food from their countries and perform traditional dances or songs. This event is so exciting for me because I’m able to have an experience of different cultures in one day without traveling to many countries. And relating to new students through this event provides me with an opportunity to find out something new about living in the U.S.
In addition, I have a chance to acquire new skills at this school. After I feel comfortable with my English, I can move forward by taking classes from different fields to become more independent in living in the U.S. I’m planning to take “volunteer opportunities class”, “find a job class”, or even fun classes, such as fitness, arts, etc.
Finally, I’m really lucky to have adult school still open in this area, and it gives me a chance to learn many things. So I want to tell newcomers to the U.S. that they
should take advantage of this opportunity as I have. And the most important thing is
that each of us should think about how we can support adult
education in our community for people who have various needs.
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