Sucess Stories

English Language Learning – It Does Matter!

by Nora Tinajero
English Now, Austin; Round Rock ISD

My name is Nora Tinajero. I’m from Mexico. I’m the third of ten children. When I was living in Mexico I never thought to come to the U.S., although I used to listen to music in English and also sometimes I looked at English books that my father had. I remember that my brothers asked me, “Why do you listen to that music? You don’t even know what they’re saying!“ And I said, “It doesn’t matter. One day I will understand what that music means.” They thought I was crazy because we were living in a small town where there were not a lot of schools. There were not many opportunities to succeed. You started working when you were very young. I only finished elementary school and then I had to work in the corn fields until I came to the U.S.

When I came to the U.S., I was excited about getting to know a new country but I was also sad because I had to leave my family, my friends and my boyfriend. When I arrived here, I saw the big buildings and long highways and I thought, “I’m going to live here.” I felt very excited. I had been in big cities before but just visiting family and I just stayed for a little while. Now living in a big city would be an important change in my life. When I went in the stores and other places I saw people from different countries speaking different languages. I felt weird being in a place where so many languages are spoken. I tried to get into high school but they didn’t accept me there. They said that I need to go to another place for adults, because I didn’t have any documents to prove my grades and because I was too old to be there. To go to the community college I needed to drive and have money for gas. I didn’t have a car, and I didn’t have a job. Later I started working in the housekeeping department of a hotel. Then I had money to go school to study English. I started classes at English Now. When I started everything was good. I was learning vocabulary and it wasn’t so hard, but when I started to study grammar it became very hard. I left the school but later I realized that I had to learn English no matter how hard it was. If I kept on trying I would do it.

I desired to take GED classes in English. At first I thought, “I won’t make it,” but now I know that it is not as hard as it looks. It’s hard for me because I didn’t learn the basics of math and language arts in Spanish when I should have, but I see that it’s hard even for English speakers, so I know that I can make it. I also enrolled in computer classes in English in order to be in touch with English speakers and also because knowing about computers is indispensable.

In the future I’m going to get my GED certificate; I’m going to speak, write, and understand English very well. I would like to go to college, even though I don’t know yet what I would like to study. First, I have to have a lot of knowledge about different subjects, but I would like to become a successful woman. I would like to get married and have a family with a better life.