🇮🇳 A Journey of an Indian Immigrant 🇮🇳
Have you ever had to immigrate all of a sudden and leave everything behind?
Mrs. Swathi is an ELL Teacher Aide at Forest Grove. She shared her immigration story with the class. You will learn about what life was like before, during, and after immigrating, along with the decision-making in moving to a new country. Also, my parents have a small connection with Mrs. Swathi because they also immigrated from India to the U.S.
Mrs. Swathi started in India. India's population is 1.45 billion. India is also not as big as America. Every state in India has different clothing. The clothing Mrs. Swathi wore was called a chudidhar. Also, some foods in India are rice, idli, and dosa. They are very tasty! She also had strict teachers, lots of homework, and one weekend every week. One day, Mrs. Swathi wanted to go to America because she knew that she would have more opportunities there. That's when the real journey started.
Mrs. Swathi was 29 years old when she came to the United States. She took two planes — one from India to Abu Dhabi, and the other from Abu Dhabi to Chicago. She sold her house and furniture, which made her very sad. Another thing that made her very sad is that she had to leave family and friends behind. All she took with her were the clothes she was wearing. Then she arrived and started her new life.
When she arrived, she had to learn a new language, and it was very difficult for her because she was from a different country — but one by one she learned and developed English from other people. She also didn't know what Halloween and Easter were at first, but when she started to adjust to the U.S., she finally learned and understood everything. At first, everything was new and scary, but now everything is good and happy. She also learned to become independent, and now she has been here for 8 years. Now she also has a good job, a good life, and a good family. America's population is about 340 million, which is less than India's, but America is big — sometimes it's busy, and sometimes it's peaceful. She also had to learn how to drive a car, because in India there are way more motorcycles than cars. And also, the foods in America were very different from India, because in India some foods are biryani, dosa, and dal, and in America they don't have those foods. She was very grateful to be there, but she also missed home.
In conclusion, it is hard to immigrate, so be kind to the people who do immigrate, respect them, and try to help them if they don't know the language.