MY STORY: English-language learners from Portland Adult Education sharing their stories in their words. We welcome them to Portland.
My name is Amelia. My father gave me my name. He saw it in a calendar.
I’m from Guatemala. I live here in Portland. I have two kids. I like dogs.
My favorite colors are black and red.
In America, I like people, the City, the food, and sunny weather. My favorite season is Summer. I don’t like Winter because it’s very cold and use many clothes. My kids like the Winter!
My country is different than here. There is more security than in my country.
I remember many things about my school when I was young. Mathematics was my favorite subject. What is different about school now, as an adult, is that the teacher will not punish me for not doing homework.
Flowers are my favorite. I like to play soccer. I like going to the gym. I like listening to music. I like the singer Shery. She is from Guatemala.
In my country, musicians play a lot marimba, violin, and guitar. I like Spanish TV show. It is romance, makes me laugh sometimes and cry. I like action movies. Jackie Chan movies are fun.
We celebrate September 15, Independence Day. I celebrate Christmas and New Year with my family.
Now I work in the hotel as a housekeeper. In the past, I worked in a company of crabs. I packed crabmeat. It was very cold. In the future, maybe I want to work in a bank as a cashier. I also want to learn about the job of dentist’s assistant. If I could start a business, I would start a restaurant.
For breakfast, I cook eggs and bacon and toast. At lunchtime I cook beef soup with lots of vegetables. The dinner time sometimes salad, quesadillas of cheese, chicken and rice.
My friend’s name is Ana. We met at work nine years ago. We go shopping together. When we are sick we visit each other. A good friend is with you in good and bad times.
My son’s name is Carlos. My daughter’s name is Jimena. My son likes dogs. In the future he will have a dog and rabbits. My daughter likes cats. In the future she will have a cat and birds.
When I was pregnant a second time and the doctor told me, “Congratulations, you’ll have a girl”, it was a very special time and I was very happy.
My older brother’s name is Rafael. He lives in Guatemala. My older sister’s name is Maria.
