Problems

Jade’s family faced many problems when starting their lives in a new country. One difficult task was transferring everything from France to here. One of the initial items that they had to figure out was how to get their Massachusetts driving licenses. They had to retake their tests in order to legally drive in the United States. Because she didn’t know the language, Celine had to retake the driving test two or three times. She had to relearn all the information she already knew, but in English. Another difficult problem for them was understanding what was needed in order for Jade and Paola to go to school. Because they were new to the school system, they needed to have paperwork from the old school before they were allowed to attend Newman Elementary School. Translating the paperwork into English was a challenge. Some of the other problems that they faced were figuring out how to transfer data from their phones and complications due to the fact that they had no credit history.

Another Challenge that Jade dealt with when starting at a new school in a new country was that it was hard to make new friends and connections. One thing that immensely helped her was the English Language Learner (ELL) program. This was a program that was offered to students whose first language was not English, in order to help them better understand and speak the language. She was automatically placed with an amazing teacher named Ms. Ferreira. Ms. Ferreira was a huge part of Jade's journey in becoming a confident English speaker and adjusting to this new country. She was taken out of class almost every day to spend time playing games and practicing English. This greatly relieved her from the stress of being in a new environment. Once she felt she had a good English base, they focused on grammar. After two months she could understand English perfectly and after three she could almost speak fluently, although with a strong accent.