Language Barriers
Many immigrant students struggle to figure out fluency
Flying her Flag: Sophomore Maria Velasquez stands smiling while holding up the Colombian flag. Valesquez and her family immigrated to the U.S. from Colom- bia when she was 13 years old. When she first moved to the United States, Valequez did not know how to speak English. Over time and with a lot work and help from those around her, she has been able to learn the new language and is thriving.
February 11, 2022
The process of learning another language is admirable and trying, at best, and as communication is possibly one of the most important things in day-to-day life, things become infinitely more difficult for those who find themselves surrounded by more people that cannot understand them than can. One of such is Magdalena Temelkova, a junior who immigrated to the US from Bulgaria in 2015.
“I would say, especially at the beginning, there were a lot
of complications, especially with the legal side of things,” Temelkova said. “Everything was already so complicated when we immigrated, but the language barrier just kind of made things worse.”
Temelkova has spent the past six years developing her English to the point of seemingly effortless fluency.
“I’d say I was mostly fluent after maybe a year-and-a-half to two years. I also had an ESL teacher at my elementary school, and a little bit in middle school, who would just pull me from class for an hour or so and teach me extra English,” Temelkova said.
With the help of in-school classes and being surrounded by native speakers, Temelkova continued to find some other interesting ways to improve her English.
“Being immersed in the culture was definitely a big part. I feel like I really learned a lot from just watching TV because it let me pick up on it in a natural way, instead of just the vocab sheets and grammar lessons,” Temelkova said.
Sophomore Maria Velasquez and her family immigrated to the US from Colombia, where they all found themselves a bit out of their depth, as far as language fluency goes. Thankfully, Velasquez was able to find a mentor to help.
“He was my middle school math teacher. He helped me with understanding the assignments I had and he would do his best to explain what I needed to do in my English classes. He also used Duolingo a lot to help me,” Velasquez said.
Velasquez and her family have put hours of time towards learning English so they can more effectively interact with their surroundings and the people within them.
“Speaking with other people helped me the most. It forced me to push myself and learn faster,” Velasquez said. “It’s best when I can talk with other people, because then they have the opportunity to help with pronunciation and grammar.”
While both have found efficient ways to improve their English, they’ve also met their own respective challenges.
“When we first got here, it was really hard, because I didn’t really know how to express myself and everything, and my dad would go to work or we would go to the store, and it was hard to get around because we just didn’t speak the language,” Velasquez said.
Temelkova has had a very similar issue in her life, in the past she often found herself lost with interpersonal communication, especially when so much of a conversation can rely on context and mutual understanding.
“It was definitely overwhelming and frustrating, at times. It’s aggravating to try and explain yourself to someone so much and still not be understood,” Temelkova said. “I can tell sometimes, too, that the other person gets a little frustrated, as well, because a lot of people really do try and understand but they just can’t.”
Fortunately with progress, Velasquez and Temelkova both have found a sense of understanding and knowing of the language that was once so foreign. Velasquez was truly lucky to find such a generous teacher to help guide her along the path of learning a new language, and for Temelkova, it all really seemed to be about opening up to the learning process.
“I think one of the biggest challenges I had to overcome was understanding that sometimes I’m gonna say the wrong thing,” Temelkova said. “I’m gonna mess up here and there, and I had to know that that was okay. I just had to learn to be more comfortable with my mistakes, because most people weren’t even going to care, anyways.”