I came to America in 2001, when I was about five years old. Everything about America was new to me at the time: school,  customs, culture and, of course, food. Before we got to settle down, we lived in a motel for about a week until we moved in with my grandpa. I never complained much and liked the idea of this new country. Everything was definitely cleaner and bigger than Vietnam. Vietnam is a small country, yet populated, with so many people that everything had to be squeezed in. There is so much land that houses were built longer in length than height. In Vietnam, to save space, all houses were like townhouses  in America, generally with three floors, longer in height than length.

My biggest difficulty was learning English. I remember being bullied by this snobby girl in my kindergarten class. She had asked me for something, and I didn’t know what she was saying. She must have gotten mad at that, so later in the day she got my jacket, threw it on the stairs and started stomping on it. I had no idea how to tell the teacher, so I sat in class, enduring the hurt I felt. I had thought, are all Americans like this? I was angry that I do or say anything about it, just because I did not understand the language. So, as time progressed, I tried my best to pay attention in class, and listened to the teacher to better improve my English.I watched PBS TV shows such as Arthur, Clifford or Sesame Street almost every day to improve my English. Those shows were very vivid parts of my childhood because they helped me learn.

As I progressed through my elementary school days, I became one of the best students in my class, despite having had English as my secondary language. Due to the fact that I had come to America at a young age, I was very comfortable with the transition, despite the language. As a child I was flexible with almost everything and settled in easily. Today, I am still very fluent in both Vietnamese and English.