Sucess Stories

My Successes Learning English

by Ashton Anderson

My name is Alberto Cordoba. I am from Veracruz, Mexico. I came from Mexico to the United States because I like it best to live here. It is good for my family members in Mexico too because I help them with the money I can send them.

When I got here to Austin, Texas I started to work in painting jobs but the work finished. I looked for more work and a month after that I started to work at the Omni Hotel in Austin. I do housekeeping at night. I work from 11:00p.m. to 7:00a.m. five days a week. Then I come to the classes at this school-Fuente. The classes are from 6:00 to 9:00p.m. So it is a long day but it is good for me to learn the best English that I can.

I didn’t have a car to go to work. Now I have a car. I was able to buy the car because I am working. My family is happy because my success has come because of the English that I am learning and because I have always been a good worker. I do the best that I can for everything. I don’t think that I could get if I had stayed in Mexico. I am sure that I would not be able to study English either.

Many people think that we come here to take jobs away from people in the U.S. I never see anyone from here getting jobs that we do. No one wants to work for the little pay and all night as a housekeeper in the hotel. I know that the people here don’t want to do the work that I do. What I want is to live a better life here. If we could do that in Mexico there would be no reason for me to come here to work. An example of what I say is that at work there are two new women working. They are from Jamaica. I always hear them say they are too tired to work quickly. They do not like to work at night. We always get these hours of work. We do the work and are happy to be able to do our work to help people in the U.S. also. We pay rent and buy things here so that we can live here. I take care of paying for my doctor and medicines if I get sick. I don’t make enough money for the hotel to take out for medical insurance because it is little pay.

In conclusion, I have been able and succeeded in getting into English classes. I am learning things in English like how to speak it and read and write it. I can use these at my work so I can understand the supervisors and guests that talk to me sometimes. I am happy that I can work and hope that I will keep learning more English if I keep coming to the classes. I don’t miss classes except when I really can’t come because there is a problem. Sometimes I am too tired or have to go to work. This will not keep me from learning English because I have this as a goal that I will be able to complete.

Well, that is all that I can tell you about my experiences with learning English. It is helping me a lot and it is helping me to help my family in Mexico. Thank you.