Once my boys and I arrived in the US in May 2012, little did I realize how many changes I was putting them through. Moreover, I had a non-English speaking teenage son who needed to start high school in just four months. That was a tall order, to say the least…
The first thing I did was find and enroll him in an intensive English school in Salt Lake City where he could take the “Trax” train (local public transportation built during the 2002 Olympics) from home to the downtown area every day on his own. His classmates consisted of students from Saudi Arabia, Spain, Brazil, South Korea, Japan, Mexico, Italy, France and Colombia, just to name a few. He not only learned to communicate quite effectively in the four months he studied there, but also made some interesting acquaintances and even a few friends.
I was continually amused as I observed both my sons’ bilingualism unfolding before me. I recall specifically going to a department store and having my teenage son try on some dress pants. He told me “I think these need to cover my “uncles.” The fact that he should have said, “ankles” was beside the point. My son was communicating and we were all having a great time watching him assimilate the language.
As both my boys began school in August 2012, I won’t say that things went totally smooth, since I would be misrepresenting the reality. Truth be told, it was rough going, since it wasn’t just assimilating a new language, but a whole new way of life, different perspectives and their previous experiences and perceptions of how things were compared to the only life they knew in Argentina.
I also had my own personal struggles as I experienced reverse culture shock and felt disoriented back in my native country. Seventeen years of living abroad had changed me, molded me into a multifaceted person, but had alienated me from the American way of life in so many ways. I was also feeling like a “fish out of water”, since I couldn’t find my reference point or anyone who could truly relate to my experience.
Time went by and we all began to adapt to our new life in the US. One of the things I had to do was learn to drive a car again, since I hadn’t driven a car since I left the US in 1995. I think we’ve all had those nightmares of going back to high school in pajamas as an adult and having to repeat the same experience we didn’t even enjoy back then. I can honestly say that it was the way I felt. I was surrounded by high schoolers, many of whom were to share the same school as my teenage son, complete with videos from the 80’s. I felt like I’d fallen into a time warp, to say the least…
Luckily, my first grader was striving better than the rest of us, and due to his outgoing personality, he was making friends easily and had become the class clown. At the beginning, he struggled with mostly understanding what his instructions were, but as I’m presently writing this article, he has learned to read in English, has even brought his test scores up almost double, and isn’t that far behind the other classmates. I never cease to be amazed at how quickly young children can pick up a language and adapt to a new environment.
As I meet with both my sons’ teachers, their progress is visibly seen and I as a mother I feel fulfilled and can see how far we’ve come. They both have excelled and are doing fabulously in their new environment, thriving with new and exciting experiences every day.
My sons still have a ways to go before they feel completely integrated in their new US environment, but it’s a gradual process and something they have to experience for themselves. Life has a way of throwing curve balls at us and as the saying goes, “Nothing is as constant as change.” And if it weren’t for changes, none of us would learn all the lessons we need to for our own growth. It’s been a wonderful journey!
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