D.M.: Hi. My name is Daika Muhammad, and I'm from Somalia, in Africa--Horn of Africa--and I'm going to be talking about my mom and her struggles with literacy when she came here. We came here in 1996, and none of us spoke English. And none of knew how to write, and none of us, knew how to read, none of us knew how to do anything. And when we came here we kind of had to start from scratch. Like, my mom knew how to speak Arabic, she knew how to speak Somali, but she had no idea what the language was like. So upon coming here, it was very very very very very difficult for her, as it was for us because we didn't know what's going on around us. We didn't understand what was going on, we weren't familiar with the territory, we didn't know anything. So I mean, we've been here for about about 14 years now, and it took my mom 14 years to develop, you know, the language--to learn English, to actually be able to read, actually be able to write. And she can speak and she can understand, but she's not as good as I am, which is not as good as, you know, the average American is or a person who came here when they were younger. She actually struggles very much, to even comprehend something difficult. I mean, she knows a little, but she doesn't know... she's not that profound when it comes to English. She's good at it, she can speak it, she can write it, but she's not at the level that she should be at upon 14 years of coming here. When I talked to her--when we came here we learned English quicker than she did because we're younger and when we're younger, it's easiest-- it's easier for us to adopt information quicker. So when we came here and we learned English, we would teach her, and give her, like, you know, little mini, like, 8 o'clock p.m. after dinner, ESL classes, and we would teach her the basics of English. Like, we'd teach her the alphabet, and stuff like that, and eventually she got the hang of it. And then she does she went to school for older ladies ,well they taught her how to learn English, how to read, how to be able to write and all that stuff. She said the English language is the most difficult language that she's ever had to learn. And it is, because there's a lot of words that are hard to understand, and there's a lot of, like, silent words... I mean, she's perfectly fluent in 2 other languages. She's a quick learner, so she kind of adapted to it really fast. But like I said, being illiterate upon coming here, and then having to start from scratch, not only did you have to adapt to the culture, but she also had to learn the language and become familiar with words that she's never known before, or words that she had never even heard of people are always saying ignorant comments like, "If you don't know English, to go back to your country," or--you kind of have to know English if you're here. Yeah, given I mean, you're kind of forced to know English if you're here. It's kind of a necessity but at the same time it takes a while. It takes a lot of hard work. It's difficult, obviously. If someone from America who spoke perfect English went to another country, they'd kind of have to be forced to adopt a language. But it would take a while, because it takes a while to learn a language, especially if you come here when you're older than a child.  But eventually my mom started going to classes, she went to school, she learned the language she-- And I'm so proud of her because she does such a good job. She can go to the lawyers on her own, if she needs a lawyer. She, you know, has her own business today, she's doing great. Like, she's doing really good.

But all that stuff did not come, you know, on top of ice cream, on top of ice cream like a cherry. it came with very hard work. she's a very driven person, so she was determined to learn the language ,and eventually she did, and she's proud of herself for learning the language. She's good at it today, she still has an accent. She still, you know, puts in a word that doesn't belong here and there, but overall, she can hold a conversation. She can do what she needs to do in life, and I'm honestly proud of her for that. Because most people tend to give up on something so difficult, because people generally don't know how hard it is to actually learn a language that you never even knew before. And for her it kind of sucked because, you know, she was forced out of her country, not by her own will but by the will of, you know, a war--a civil war that's been ongoing for about 20 years now. So she was kind of a refugee. She was kicked out of her home, her work, her life was all misplaced--all of it was gone. She was-- she came to a country where she had no-- she had to stay in, because there was no more home for her. Home didn't exist, so she kind of found how to find her place. She had a find her home, she had to establish herself in a way that she could be proud, that she could call America her home, and she could give her kids opportunity. And she did do that, and I'm proud of her for that. Like I said like a billion times before, but I am proud of her for that, and she did it with hard work and determination, and I expect everyone to do the same when it comes to learning a language.

Even if you're illiterate, if you can't read, keep on keeping on. Just try your hardest. Even my five-year-old brother, he just wanted to write. He just wanted to read. He practices even more every single day. He's like, "Hey, can you help me?" I'm like, "Okay, here we go again!" But if a five-year-old can, you know, establish himself in terms of writing and reading then anybody can do it. And if my mom can do it, who didn't speak the language at all, who's an older lady, who took forever to learn, then it's possible for anyone, so I leave you with that. Bye,  everyone.