Khady Thiam
English 11000
Kylee Pastore
April 17, 2022
The Struggles of Immigrant Students
Have you ever traveled to another country where you don’t know much about, including the language? Now imagine living there for the long term and trying to learn the language all over again and getting a job to live a normal happy life. That’s all that immigrants are trying to do and it’s very hard for them especially when some natives make it so much more challenging to accept and respect them. Immigrant students have it so much worse because they interrupted their studies and left their friends and some family members behind to come here and since they don’t know the language, that’s affecting their grades in a bad way. They have to work so much harder to succeed in an okay school because they don’t have the money to go to a better school that accepts that they are not fluent in English no matter how smart they are. This is not fair at all. This is also not good for their self esteem or mental health because this will always make them think the worst of themselves. Whenever I have a problem with vocabulary or spelling, I mostly blame it on being an immigrant, but I also blame myself for not being smart enough to understand.
People have been immigrating for decades. Many immigrants immigrate because they are seeking greater economic opportunity. I came to this country because like a lot of immigrants there aren’t a lot of job opportunities in my home country. When you graduate and get all your diplomas, you may not have a job that goes with the education you took. In my home country, you see people selling stuff on the street when they already have all their educational diplomas, I didn’t want that to happen to me. When you come to a country that you don’t know anything about, you have to start all over again and you can’t do that without learning the language, whether you are a child or an adult.
Immigrants don’t know the language very well because the language of the country they have immigrated to is not their native one. I watched a youtube video called “New immigrants share their stories”, where new immigrant students shared their stories to native ones in order for them to know what kind of struggles immigrants go through. I like this idea because people do not understand what it is to be an immigrant and learning it as a kid is a great way to remember it. One kid in the video said that adapting in America was difficult because it is not the same as their country. The food, friends, culture and especially language are different and they have to start a whole new life (2:54). This is very true because everything is different here.
Immigrants do not know the new language very well because they immigrated to a country that has a different language than theirs and they have to learn it. Language is a main resource in a country. You need to know it in order to have a job and be able to support yourself. There is a series on Netflix called “Emily in Paris”, which is about a girl (Emily) who went to Paris because of a job promotion, but she doesn’t speak French and that presents a lot of challenges for her. Even though her colleagues speak English like her, most clients and others around them don’t. I think that is very similar to what immigrants struggle with everyday. Some people may say that if immigrant students have to meet these challenges then why don’t they just stay in their homeland. However people immigrate for a reason, not because they are just bored in their home country and want a change. A lot of countries have their struggles, sometimes getting out of that country is the best or only way to have a better life. Like what’s happening in Ukraine right now, people emigrate from there because they want to survive and get their families away from the war.
Learning a new language that we are not familiar with is hard. You may say why don’t immigrants learn English if they want to stay in this country, but learning a new language is not as easy as one may think. It’s not something that you just wake up one day and know it. It takes patience and time. You will be surprised to know how difficult it is to learn a language you did not grow up with. I read an article called “Why learning a new language is hard and how to make it easier”. It talks about what a struggle it is to learn a new language and why it is that way. The author explains that learning a new language is difficult because it challenges both your mind and time, which I agree with, especially the time because I am a very impatient person. Most people give up on doing it because it also makes you look ridiculous and it is sometimes embarrassing. Even if you can speak the language, you will still have problems with it because you didn’t grow up knowing it like native speakers.
To sum up, the reason why immigrant students struggle in school is because of language barriers. It matters because language is the basic thing to know in a country. It’s like the foundation of a house. If you don’t have it, everything is going to collapse. If you don’t know the language of a country, you are going to have big problems in that country. Natives need to realize that immigrants are also people just like them. They just want a better opportunity to be successful, something they didn’t have in their home country. They are not dangerous, so stop making them feel like they are. I know you are going to be surprised by this, but immigrants are people who have feelings, they feel things and those feelings can hurt. Schools need to have classes dedicated to immigrant students in general who are struggling with the language and help them be better and achieve their goals. The government should help them with their finances too.
Work Cited
- https://www.netflix.com/title/81037371 (Emily In Paris)
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