When I was in ninth grade I came to the United States without knowing anything about the English language. Basics were not too basic for me, even saying “nice to meet you” was difficult for me, and that is saying much, in reality I only knew how to count to three and how to say hello.

On my first day I met a girl called Jennifer, she helped me to know where to go during lunch and what to do during class. It was nice having someone else who speaks my language helping me. The same day, teachers made us introduce ourselves to our classmates, they gave us some prompts to help out those like me. However, I still didn’t know how to read or the correct pronunciation of the words, people say Spanish has similar grammar rules compared to English, others even say it is just like spanish, to me it was like I was trying to talk to a baby. I had to ask for translations to Jennifer, something I never did before as my writing and reading skills were above the ones from my classmates back in my country, so I felt like everything just reseted for me. At the end of the day I had no idea what I did during the five hours I was in that building.

I wanted to learn quickly, I wanted to share my ideas and be able to understand other people’s ideas and feelings as well. I tried to learn how to speak and write at the same time. I think sometimes I try to bite more than I can actually chew, but I like challenges so I never understand myself. Jennifer my classmate, saw my efforts of spelling every words correctly, sometimes I asked someone else to spell it letter by letter, however, Jennifer advice against it, she told me, learn how to speak first, write the words as you hear them to facilitate pronunciation, I didn’t like that advice at all, I just wanted to stop depending on others. I am a leader not a follower, at least that’s what I used to think, so someone trying to keep me from moving forward at my pace was like telling me to not walk in a whole day. 

After a month of class, I had my biggest challenge so far, we had a group presentation in biology class. Jennifer was in my group, and together with us there was a girl from El Salvador. Because of our lack of language compared to the other members of our group, we decided to create notes to help us with the part of the presentation that was assigned to each one of us. The Salvadorian girl called Maria, asked me for help with her notes, because Guatemala and El Salvador are neighbor countries, I assume she felt more comfortable talking to me, but Jennifer jumped in to help both of us, and told Maria that she was going to say her part of the presentation and told Maria to write just as she heard the words coming from her and when presenting just read exactly what she wrote. On the other hand, I did completely the opposite, I wrote what I was going to say exactly as how the words are supposed to be written because in my mind that was not going to work at all, and my methods were better. 

Back in my country I had a lot of difficulty speaking since I was a kid, I started speaking way after other kids. My first complete sentences came until I was five years old. But as I grew up my reading and writing skills improved and I was the best reader in my class. However, that confidence was not enough to make the same thing happen in my biology class.

When the time came to present, I was confident, but the words in my paper didn’t help me much, I stuttered with every sentence, I finished reading from my notes. Then, it was the Salvadorian girl Maria . Her pronunciation was better than mine. We received feedback from the teacher, he went easy on the feedback because everyone in the classroom was learning English as a second language. Despite that, I felt stupid, I was a thousand hundred percent sure that I was the worse presenter of the day. 

After my not so successful first presentation, I continued to work in groups with Jennifer, as teachers trust her to lead small groups. I mean, she had one of the best language proficiency of my class. For my next presentations, I decided to listen more carefully to her advice. As I implemented her advice I applied some of my own techniques as well. Although I followed her instructions to improve, I saw her as my competition, I wanted to reach her level and then surpass her. Next class presentation I surprised her. I presented without note cards, and my pronunciation improved. I was proud of myself, however, she told me “good job, but come on, accept that it was because of me”. I laughed. It also created a beautiful friendship, a friendship that still continues to this day, and also she continues to correct me when speaking english.