Sucess Stories

English Skills and Job Success Lead to Home Ownership

by Lucio Guerra
Fuente Learning Center, Austin

My name is Lucio. I am from Tamaulipas, Mexico. I came to the United States in 1999. This is one of the goals that I wanted to achieve and that I have been able to get. I also wanted to come here to work. This is the second thing that I have been lucky enough to be able to have had a success in doing. I started working in the area of waste management picking up paper at the landfill. I had to work on the weekends and during the week so that I could pay my rent. I usually would work from six in the morning to five in the afternoon every day of the week. It was at least about 70 hours of work.

At the same time I began at the landfill I started to learn English. In 2006 I started to go to English As A Second Language classes at Fuente Learning Center in Austin, Texas. I can now write and read in English much more than when I first started to learn how to speak in English. This is something that I am very happy to have achieved because it has helped me at work. Some of the things I have studied at Fuente are the verbs..especially present progressive verbs that end in ING because the teacher says that many of the times that we are talking it is with words that are in this tense. Some other things that I do to help me learn more English is to use a hand translator. This little machine helps me because I can learn at least 40 new words that I can use to understand other people and so that they can understand me when I am trying to have a conversation with them. When I learn the set of 40 words that I practice on the translator, I add a new group of 40 words to learn and to use. It has audio so I can say the words when I practice.

Now, I have succeeded in improving my job skills and have a much better job than when I was just picking up paper. I now operate the large machines at work. When I am working I am responsible for making the new roads that are to make the landfill area larger and more useable because there is always a lot of new waste that is coming in to the landfill. Learning to speak, read, write and understand English has been a very valuable success for me. I have been able to use it when I am working and because I have gotten higher and higher levels of work at the job, I have been able to buy my own house. I am also helping my family in Mexico. I am especially glad because now I have the weekends with my wife and my son. So my success has been in several areas of my life. I started out in Mexico and now live in Austin, Texas. When I first came here I wanted to have a good job and I wanted to learn English so that I could help my family in Mexico and my own family here. I was able to get from the bottom of the job to a skilled area of work. It pays more money and this helps me to live a better life. Success in these areas has been a blessing to me and to my family.