Every Saturday and Sunday morning since the beginning of this semester my alarm clock has shrilled at exactly seven in the morning. Rain or shine, energetic or tired, hung-over or sober, I have committed myself to getting up, putting on a shirt and tie and making the almost hour-long trek from my house to Dorchester, Mass. In Dorchester I teach English to a group of seventeen Vietnamese immigrants all of whom have been in the United States for less than three years.
The organization I work at, The Vietnamese American Civic Association (VACA), has a mission "to promote family self-sufficiency and well-being, and to facilitate community empowerment among the Vietnamese population of Boston and Greater Boston." It does this by providing a multitude of services including, English to Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) classes, citizenship and civics classes, health awareness education and outreach, youth programming, and employment services. The small role I play in contributing to VACA's mission is that of an ESOL teacher.
I absolutely love teaching English in the Fields Corner section of Dorchester. I'm not going to lie: the early wake-ups are almost as bad as learning that your housemates have decided that they're adopting two smelly ferrets. It's hard for me to get up sometimes, especially if I don't end up going to bed until two or three in the morning. However, I do it anyway. Why? Because it makes me feel good to help immigrants adjust to living in America.
According to the curriculum I use based on the Massachusetts Department of Education frameworks, all my ESOL students should be able to answer the question, "Why did you come to America?" before leaving my intermediate level class. So as one of the components of my latest class, I asked my students to articulate the reasons they had for coming to America. The 70-year-old class clown, strikingly similar to my dad, responded by saying, "To get more freedom." The single mother with two kids said, "To get a better education for my children." The 20-year-old female assembly worker said, "To get a better life."
I am amazed by the motivation, dedication and hard work of all of my students, most of whom work 40 hours or more a week at low paying jobs in factories, machine shops and assembly companies. But they still have enough energy to wake up early every Saturday and Sunday morning to attend six hours of English class. My sacrifice seems minuscule and almost frivolous compared to what my students are doing to pursue the "American Dream."
I've learned many things from my students, one of which is a deeper appreciation of what it means to live in America. In this tumultuous time, when America is at war in Iraq, I think many Americans lose sight of what it means to be American. It sends chills through my spine to hear an individual say that he wants to move out of the United States because of President Bush's stance on the war in Iraq.
Yes, President Bush's policies were not and are not perfect, but I believe the United States is still the greatest place to live on earth. It's ironic that individuals that have been in America less than three years want to be here more than people that have been here all their lives. I think in some ways too many people take for granted the great opportunities that come with living in America.
I love living in the United States - a land where hard work and a little luck can go a long way. My family was lucky enough to come here in the late 1980s, and as a result I have had the chance to live the majority of my life in the greatest land on earth. No, things are not perfect in America. There is still homelessness, poverty and hunger. But there is also freedom, liberty and opportunity.
What does living in America mean to you? Being an American, in any sense of the word, does not carry just negative connotations but comes equipped with several positive meanings. Forgetting the positive aspects of life in America is as equally detrimental as ignoring the negative. When looking at what's wrong with America, don't lose sight of what's right.
Loi To is a junior majoring in political science and Russian.
