Frustration with English

by Por Nang Sae See

When I first came to United States in 1980, my sponsor picked me up at the airport and took us to his house about one hour away.We needed to go to the bathroom but we couldn't tell him in English. We didn't speak any English at that time. So we had to show him with our hands. It was very difficult to communicate with our sponsor. We felt frustrated and nervous because we couldn't communicate with our sponsor. Three days later we moved to our own house. Because speaking English was so difficult, we decided not to speak English any more. When the sponsor came to visit us we would hide under blanket. After he left, we would come out. We did this for about fifteen days. Our sponsor finally decided that we must be sick and took us to the doctor. We went with him because we couldn't speak enough English to tell him that we weren't sick. Finally my sponsor found someone that could translate. Everbody felt happy.