My Mother's Struggle
Mahammed, Deqa

>>DEQA: Hi, my name is Deqa Mahammed and I'm from Somalia, and was born in Africa. I'm going to be talking about my mom and her struggle with literacy when she came here. We came here in 1996 and none of us spoke English, none of us knew how to write or read or do anything and when we came here we kind of had to start from scratch. My mom knew how to speak Arabic, she knew how to speak Somali, but she had no idea what the language was like. So upon coming here it was very, very difficult for as it was for us because we didn't know what was going on around us. We didn't understand what was going on, we weren't familiar with the territory; we didn't know anything. So we've been here for about fourteen years now and it took my mom fourteen years to develop the language, to learn English, to actually be able to read and write. She can speak and understand but she's not as good as I am, or she's not as good as the average American is or a person that came here when they were younger. She actually struggled very much to even comprehend something difficult. She knows a little but she doesn't know - she's not that profound when it comes to English. She's good at it, she can speak it, she can write it, but she's not at the level that she should be at unfortunately. When we came here, we learned English quicker than she did because we're younger and it's easier for us to adopt a revision quicker. So when we came here and we learned English, we'd teach her and do like our little eight o'clock pm after dinner some classes and we'd teach her the basics of English and we'd teach her the alphabet and stuff like that. Eventually she got the hang of it and she went to school for older ladies where they taught her how to learn English, how to read, how to be able to write and all that stuff. She said that the English language was the most difficult language that she's ever had to learn and it is because there's a lot of words that are hard to understand and there's a lot of silent words. She's perfectly fluent in two other languages, she's a quick learner so she kind of adapted to it really fast. But like I said, being illiterate upon coming here and then having to start from scratch not only did you have to adapt to the culture but she also had to learn the language and become familiar with words that she's never known before or never had even heard of before. It takes a long time and people are always saying ignorant comments like, "If you don't know English, go back to your country." You kind of have to know English if you're here. Given you're kind of forced to know English if you're here, it's kind of a necessity but at the same time it takes a while, it takes a lot of hard work, it's difficult. Obviously if someone from America who spoke perfect English went to another country they would kind of have to be forced to adopt another language and it would take a while because it takes a while to learn a language, especially if you come here when you're older than a child. Eventually my mom would start going to classes, she went to school, she learned the language, and I'm so proud of her because she does such a good job. She can go to the lawyers on her own if she needs a lawyer; she has her own business today. She's doing great, she's doing really good. But all that stuff did not come on top of ice cream like a cherry [Laughing]. It came with very hard work. She's a very driven person so she was determined to learn the language and eventually she did. She's proud of herself for learning the language. She's good at it today; she still has an accent. She still puts in a word that doesn't belong here and there but overall she can hold a conversation, she can do what she needs to do in life. I'm honestly proud of her for that because most people tend to give up on something so difficult because people generally don't know how hard it is to actually learn a language that you never even knew before. For her it kind of sucked because she was forced out of her country, not by her own will but by the will of a civil war that's been ongoing for about twenty years now. So she's kind of a refugee; she's kicked out of her home, her work, her life was all displaced, all of it was gone. She came to a country where she had to stay in because there was no more home for her; home didn't exist anymore. So she had to find her place, she had to find her home, she had to establish herself in a way that she could be proud, that she could call America her home and that she could give her kids opportunities. She did do that and I'm proud of her for that. Like I said like a billion times before, but I am proud of her for that. She did with hard work and determination and I expect everyone to do the same when it comes to learning a language or even if you're illiterate and you can't read, keep on keeping on. Just try your hardest. Even my five year old brother, he just wanted to write, he just learned to read. He practices even more every single day. He's like, "Deqa come help me!" And I'm like, "Ok, here we go again." But if a five year old can establish himself in terms of writing and reading then anyone can do it. If my mom can do it who couldn't speak the language at all, who's an older lady who took forever to learn - it's possible for anyone. So I leave you with that. Bye everyone.