Sucess Stories

Better English Leads to Workplace and Family Success

by Jose Luis Torres
Fuente Learning Center, Austin

My name is Jose Luis Torres. I am from Veracruz, Mexico. I came here in 1999. I came here because I knew that it could change my life economically. Things were not like I thought that they would be. I work very hard every day at my welding job. I think that I can do many things. One of the things that I have had success in and that I know I can do is learn more English to help me in my job.

I have four children. My oldest son is ten years old and my daughter is seven years old. I also have twins that are six months old. That gives me more reasons to improve my skills in language and welding.

I want to do something with my life. Maybe one day it will help me and my family even more. I want to give my children a little more than what I had when I was a child. It is very important to me. I want to learn to speak English and maybe I will find better jobs in the future.

I need to help my family. They live in Mexico. Life is so hard there. Jobs are hard to get and the pay is not enough to buy the necessities. My mother now lives in Cuernavaca, Mexico. For that reason I need to speak English. That way I hope to understand all the things that I need to know to do a better job. That is my goal for today and I am doing everything I can to learn more and more English.

In this article I wanted you to know that I am happy, that I am learning and understanding more English than when I started these classes. I had never had studied English before in a class. I did have a program at home to learn English. It is called Ingles Sin Barreras. It is ok but not enough. It helped me with just the basic English. I want to know more so that I can become a citizen of the U.S.A. I know and study more in this class, and I have started to write English more. My kids see me and do it too.

Well, that is my article on the successes that I have had. I have succeeded in learning more English. I am using it at my job so the customers get the work that they want. They get it the way they want it done too. All of this is helping me live a more comfortable life and my children and family are making progress every day. Thanks