ESL

ESL

 * I Am An ESL Student**


 * //I am an ESL student …//**


 * I did not choose to be here, or to leave my friends, or to leave my home.**
 * I do not look like my brother or my sister, I look like me, and that is normal; it is you who look strange.**
 * I am very fortunate because at the end of the day I will have two or three languages**


 * //you see, I am an ESL student …//**


 * I like blue jeans – the first time I saw my national dress was at a multicultural night at my new Canadian school.**
 * I do not live on strange ethnic foods; I like ice cream, pizza, Coca Cola and junk food.**
 * I am not by birth-right a mathematics or science scholar**


 * //you see, I am an ESL student …//**


 * I am a child en route to adulthood and that trip will be as challenging for me as any other young person.**
 * I am not by ethnic definition a gang member, a cheat, a male chauvinist, a suppressed female, a bad driver, a compulsive gambler, or part of a close-knit extended family.**
 * I am not learning disabled, educationally retarded or in need of fixing, I just don’t speak, write, or read English well, but that will change**


 * //you see, I am an ESL student …//**


 * I am as unique as any Canadian-born person and as a group my friends and I are as different and as similar as any group of young people.**
 * I would prefer to attend my neighbourhood school and to become part of my community.**
 * I have parents who are very involved in my education, they may not, however, share your definition of involvement**


 * //you see, I am an ESL student …//**


 * I am not responsible for the sins of my father or his father.**
 * I, like you, have a personality that has been shaped, in part, by my culture; my parents, like your parents, have personalities shaped by their cultures; therefore, we are different, and therefore, both of us must remember that our personalities are neither good nor bad, they just are what they are.**
 * I come from a culture that is not without racist aspects, I have as much to learn about living in harmony as you do**


 * //you see, I am an ESL student …//**


 * I have a need to love and to be loved, to praise and to be praised, to correct and to be corrected**


 * //you see, I am an ESL student.//**
 * //Neil Horne//**