One day my church elected me Sunday School teacher. I was extremely nervous, because my English wasn’t very good. I could read a little but not well enough to read the story so that children would be interested.

When my own children came home from school and needed help with their homework in grades 1, 2, and 3 it was okay, but after that I was lost. I was ashamed of myself as a parent, that I couldn’t help my own children.

 

My husband had lived in Canada for almost thirteen years, but I had never been to Canada until I married him. For me it was all new. My husband had some friends who could only speak English, and I couldn’t communicate with them. I felt like just going to play with the kids.

 

When I’d go grocery shopping I couldn’t read the labels. When I got letters in the mail I couldn’t read them. Even when I wanted to get my driver’s license so I could drive here legally, I didn’t know enough English. Everything was just so hard to do because of the language barrier. I got very frustrated; I felt like just giving up, but people encouraged me to keep going.

 

I thought a lot about taking English literacy classes. I was born in Paraguay, and my education was in German and only up to grade seven. I knew if I wanted to live here, I needed to improve my English language. My husband encouraged me to go, so I finally made the phone call.

 

When I started adult literacy classes I could see how much it helped me; my English improved a lot. I started reading, writing, speaking, and understanding people better, and could help my children more with their school work. Now I also enjoy reading more. People still encourage me to keep going to adult literacy classes.

 

I believe if people come to Canada and want to live here, it’s important to take English classes to improve their English language skills, because that is the language of the country. Since I have been taking the classes I feel much better about myself. I can see that I am learning a lot. To be in public is much easier now. I believe very much in taking classes. For me it has helped me go from shame to confidence.