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.

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Maria - Poland