My Biggest Decision

In may 2019, I made a decision to leave my country, Haiti, to go live in Brazil. Everything went well. When I arrived in Brazil, I didn't know anything about the country at all. I had no one waiting for me, and I went without even speaking their language. All I wanted was a better life. I'm young and have a full future with a lot of potential. To be able to adapt, I had to learn the language and the culture of that beautiful country. I ended up finding a job and I made friends who taught me the language and everything I needed to know.

I was happy at my job. It was a chicken company. I was in the cleaning part, like removing bones and the skin. I did my job very well. I was the only immigrant to work there. Everyone loved me and treated me like a member of their family. They said I was smiling a lot, and i often made jokes with them. They are very welcoming people. That's how I managed to express myself in Portuguese.

Suddenly, the corona virus appeared. Everything changed and I lost my job. I couldn't stay without working. There were bills to pay, so I had to create a few things to survive. I made dishes at home, like lasagna and seasoned meat, to sell them with friends in the company where I worked. With that, I was recognized by many people. Then, in November 2021, I learned of my father's death. I was devastated because he was everything to me. He encouraged me in everything. My biggest regret was not being able to see him one last time.

He was my great love. We told each other everything. There was no secret between us. But God called him, and he went away. After his death, I made the decision to come to the US because Brazil is very far from Haiti. At that time i couldn’t travel because tickets were too expensive. I didn’t have enough funds to go and come back. So I decided not to go to his burial, and I had to attend by video call. I made the decision to come to the US just to be a little bit closer to Haiti.

This way, I can go see my family whenever I want. It’s been three years since I have seen them. I didn't tell my family about my decision because I didn’t want to disappoint them. When you make such a decision, you have to expect either failure or success. But thank God it was a total success and I’m proud of myself. I made the decision on my own. It was my dream. I always heard that it was a country full of opportunities. If you know what you really want in life, well, you'll get it. Here I am in the US with so many dreams to realize. It was the biggest decision I have ever made. I do not regret having made it. I'm alive and I'll work to make my father proud of his daughter.

~

Farah Rejouis - Haiti

Beatriz Bueno on The Public's Radio

Congratulations to Beatriz for having her wonderful essay, What Moving to the US Has Taught Me, featured on Mosaic Community Essays. Her story was broadcast this morning, Monday, August 29, 2022, on public radio. Please take a few minutes to click on the link and listen to her beautifully written story. Beatriz was in our evening writing class and wrote the first draft of her essay in response to one our class writing prompts. The story you hear on the link is her finished draft. I hope you enjoy Beatriz' story, and don't hesitate to post a comment to let her know!

What Moving to the US Has Taught Me

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Beatriz Bueno - Brazil

Elvin Writes for Mosaic on The Public's Radio

Elvin, from our evening writing class just published and broadcast his essay, One Year in America, on Mosaic Community Essays, a podcast produced by The Public's Radio right here in Rhode Island.

Elvin wrote his essay completely in English, even though he is reading it in Spanish. On the link below, you can hear the essay being read in both languages.

Congratulations to Elvin!

One Year in the US

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Elvin - Venezuela

Encouraging Others

Two days after arriving in RI, I started attending the English Conversation Group at Cranston Public Library, and it has been a great experience.

I didn’t know I would get the chance to invest my time in such an important activity for free, nourishing my mind and sharing it with amazing people and excellent teachers.

Since my fiancé and I decided to step up our relationship and get married, I always had improving my English in mind and maybe going back to college in order to have better communication and be prepared to get a good job like the one I had in DR. Participating in the English class, I also got the opportunity to do an MOS certification, offered by RWU and the PPL, and that definitely will help me in my job searching process.

Like me, there are a lot of Latin immigrants in the USA trying to have a better life, but sadly, many of them don’t speak English, not even the basics. You can find people struggling in places where the employees don’t speak their language, like the guy I helped in Sally Beauty Supply. He was trying to buy an electric shaver replacement part and didn’t know how to explain to the saleswoman exactly what he wanted.

I wish they were as lucky as I was, and had someone to encourage them to learn. I really feel thankful. That’s why I decided to share my experience with others, and talk to them about the English class. Besides, I send links and information about YouTube channels to those who maybe don’t have time for the library's class schedules. I try to convince them how investing their time wisely, instead of wasting it watching videos or non productive things, will be better. They only need to focus on learning a couple of words daily or weekly. The idea is to motivate them, because encouraging others to do their best is a way of giving back what we’ve gotten for free.

~

Ogalis Hernandez - Dominican Republic

Remembering Pecaya

When I was a child, I traveled on vacation to the town where my mother was born, Pecaya, in the mountains of Falcón state, Venezuela. Approximately 200 families live there. Their houses date back more than 200 years, made of adobe and painted white doors and windows made of brown wood, their roofs made of tiles.

The main streets are paved, and the others have stones or dirt. It has a small square and civil headquarters, the church, and supplies around it. I felt like an adult because I walked unaccompanied throughout the town, bought trinkets, drank soft drinks, and watched the goats pass by with their young. The neighbors rode on donkeys carrying firewood, sacks of corn, carafes of cocuy.

It was hot during the day, and at night, the temperature dropped. In the afternoons, I went with cousins ​​and friends to bathe in the crystal-clear stream, and we saw the flocks of parakeets and parrots shining with their green and yellow colors, looking for their nests between the hollows of the hill and the trees. Some children threw stones at them.

In Pecaya, we learned about birth, death, seeing the goats give birth, and how they killed the goats. We made trips to the cemetery where we saw the skeletons. At night, we saw the sky with stars. Pecaya was synonymous with freedom, joy, and adventure.

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Elvin - Venezuela

Ordering Shrimp

One Saturday evening I went to a beautiful restaurant called Arooga with my family of nine. It was the birthday of one of my cousins. Everyone had already ordered and I was the only one left. I wanted to order shrimp but I didn't know how to pronounce it. I tried anyway. As I tried to say shrimp, it sounded like I said "Trump" instead. Soon after, I was met with laughter. It was so embarrassing.

The waiter understood me and he said it didn’t matter. It happens often. Soon after, I didn't even want to order a drink for fear of repeating the same mistake. There were a lot of people. Imagine a Saturday evening in a beautiful, warm restaurant. But I didn't want to go without a drink so I asked my cousin to do it for me. This night made me reflect on my English. So I now think before I say something in English.

~

Farah Rejouis - Haiti

An Embarrassing Situation

We all have good and bad memories. We are people and we make many mistakes in our lives. No one is a genius who knows everything, especially when we arrive in a new country and start a new chapter. Beginning is always a hard time for us and the foundation to live here is to learn the language to adopt a new home. We need to learn general, main things which will help us to get more skill and knowledge about the places where we are. Immigrants do not have a choice but this country is open to us. You must make a choice to take a chance or your life will never change.

I moved to the U.S.A in September and in December I started a job in a Subway restaurant. I was worried about saying something. I knew just the names of sandwiches and a couple more words. I always worked in the afternoon with teenegers. They knew I did not speak English and they did not want to talk with me. Whenever someone asked me about something, I could not answer. I know the way which I spoke was not clear to understand and the best way to do it for me was just listening to them talking to each other.

One day when I was with my Polish friends working a shift, a couple of guys waited in line and I called to the next person, saying, “What would you like, ma’am?” Everybody looked my way. I was all red, I felt like the ground would collapse. I knew there was something wrong with my words. I was really disappointed. My friend told me I should say, “ What would you like sir?” and she explained to me what I said. I would never, ever again have this kind of misunderstanding.

This was an awful time. I was angry, nervous, and frustrated but after some time passed I understood it was a good lesson for me. I never repeated my mistake. There is not just one situation like that. I can say there are more and more cases, but I will not go back to them. I tried to take advantage of this. Working harder with the language and trying to talk to people, it doesn't matter if I make a mistake. I always tell them if they hear me say something the wrong way to just let me know, because I will learn quicker after correcting my mistake. Sometimes we have bad habits which stay in our heads and are hard to remove from the brain. What really helps me is working in the community, being around people, making mistakes and solving problems. My life, my mistakes, my lessons.

~

Maria - Poland

A Thing Happened from the Early Morning

At the beginning of my life in Providence, I was walking my dog, Chelsea, and came across a neighbor who seemed to like my dog. She asked me a couple of questions.

"What shiny hair it has! Is it a boy or a girl?" she asked.

"Thank you!" I said. "It is a girl."

"Wow! So nice! Very cute! I have a cat but I like dogs too. Do you like cats?"

"Yes, I do," I told her, even though I don't really like cats. I didn't want to offend my neighbor.

"Don't you have a cat?" she asked.

"Yes, I don't."

"Is it a girl?"

"***???"

"How old is it?"

"***???"

I thought there was nothing to answer because I already told her that I had no cat, so I kept quiet without answering.

"Oh, it's okay. Never mind! Have a good one!" she said.

"You, too. Bye!" I told her.

At that moment, she was obviously flustered and quickly went away. A few minutes later, I realized what was wrong. It was because I answered in the wrong way to a negative question. Saying "yes, I don't" or "yes, I am not" is a Korean way to answer in the negative. I should have answered, "No, I don't." I didn't throw away my old habit of answering in a Korean way. It was a shame. I still make that kind of mistake in my English even now. How can I avoid mistakes caused by a different way of talking because of a different way of thinking?

Oh, my goodness! What a thing my English is!

~

Young - South Korea

My Personal Success Story

I had to drive to Connecticut last November to meet my kids, 2 weeks after I moved here. They were visiting their aunt and cousins. I remember it was Wednesday before Thanksgiving day and we had set to join there for lunch. My fiance (now my husband) couldn’t go, so he let me take his car. He forgot to tell me that it was running out of gas and I noticed it the moment I started it.

Oh my Gosh! I said to myself. What am I going to do now? I have never ever bought gas on my own here, and there are only self service gas stations around. That 's ok! I said again to myself. You are a smart woman and this is not the most difficult thing you are about to do. You live here now, go and learn.

I stopped at the nearest station, placed the car in one of the filling areas and turned off the engine. Then I entered the store, cheered and smiled at the lady behind the counter. She replied to me with a candid welcome and smile, so I said: I need gas, I haven’t done it before, how does it work? She asked me how much I wanted, and after I paid, she explained to me what to do. I did it, filled my tank and had a wonderful trip.

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Ogalis Hernandez - Dominican Republic

WHAT!

I like to eat chicken wings. Honey is my favorite. One day, I went to a grocery store's hot food kiosk to buy some. I saw a few cooking styles of chicken wings on the food warmers, but they didn’t show the names. So, I used my finger to point to one of them and asked the staff serving at the counter, “Hello, may I know what the taste of the wings is?”

Immediately, I got a frown and a loud, “WHAT?”

I felt surprised and embarrassed! Then I quickly asked another way. “I mean, is it a sweet taste?” Her attitude turned out to be nice and she replied that it was a little spicy. Chili is not my favorite, so I bought something else I liked.

I just wanted to know what it tasted like. I guess she might have misunderstood that I wanted to taste it before I bought it. Or, I said it in the wrong way. This was an unenjoyable experience, but it reminded me when talking to people I must use the simplest way to say something, which helps to reduce confusion or misunderstanding.

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- Shuk, Hong Kong