When I came to this country three years ago, I faced a new challenge . It was the challenge of language. English was not new to me—I had studied it back home in Bangladesh—but the way people spoke here felt so fast, sharp, and full of accents I could not understand. Every time someone spoke to me, I felt lost. Their words blurred together, and I often nodded even when I did not fully know what they meant.

At school, this problem became bigger. Teachers gave instructions, but I only caught half of what they said. My classmates spoke quickly, using slang I had never heard before. I was shy to ask questions because I did not want to look foolish. It reminded me of the time when I was sick with typhoid—weak, powerless, and afraid of being left behind. Once again, I felt like I was trapped in silence, unable to express myself the way I wanted.

But life, as always, brought me help at the right time. I made a friend, an Indian girl from my class. She spoke English with an accent closer to mine, and I could understand her easily. She patiently explained things I didn’t catch in class. She slowed her words down, repeated phrases, and even taught me some new expressions. More than that, she made me feel comfortable. With her, I didn’t have to be ashamed of my English.

This entry is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International license.