I am from Vietnam, and I have lived in the United States since 2013. Two years is not a long time for me to improve everything, to adapt my new life; so it is quite difficult, and has many challenges. In the first year, I had some troubles because I was always thinking about how to go to school everyday, how to find a new place, and a job. One of my biggest problems is that learning English is difficult for me because am not a native speaker, and it is a main language in the United States.
One of my difficulties is that I am really extremely shy. English is not my mother language, so I cannot speak confidently. Even though I learned it when I was in high school, I mispronounce words, or my sentences do not make complete sense when I am speaking. I was really proud of my English in Vietnam; in contrast, everything has been made mistakes when I talk to native speakers or someone who speaks English better than me. In my mind, they are professionals who speak perfectly correctly, and I am always an English beginner.
Another of my difficulties is that English has complicated grammar; for example, the big mistake for any Vietnamese student is that they do not use an article before a count noun. Moreover, English words have different parts of speech like adjectives, verbs and adverbs. Their form words make them hardly remember. In addition, English grammar has twelve tenses, which never happen in Vietnamese grammar. Finally, I have some problem in spelling and using words. Some English words have the same meaning but we should use them in different situation; for instance, we cannot use “die” in a formal situation, so we should use “pass away”. Spelling sometimes makes me confused also; for example, there is a difference between “fish” and “philosophy”, but “f” and “ph.” are kind of similarity in pronunciation. Even though learning English is difficult for me who am not a native speaker, I always try to improve all my weaknesses. English is an important language since we use it to communicate to any people in the world. Especially I am living in the United States where its main language is English. I believe that I can overcome these difficulties and will achieve success.
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