It is hard moving to a new country where the language, norms, culture and values are different. The first years in a new country are the hardest. You have to assimilate to a new lifestyle in order to fit. Even though you try to assimilate most of the time you would never succeed. You enter in cultural shock and get depressed. The biggest challenge is learning the language. Language can be a factor that separates you from the others. It is the way people from the same culture identify and communicate with each other. Therefore, when you do not understand other people from different parts of the world, it can make you feel very lonely. This is what Pat Mora is trying to say in his poem “Elena”, a Mexican mother who is being portray as feeling lonely in the United States.
In Pat Mora poem “Elena” he writes, “My Spanish isn’t enough. I remember how Id smile listening to my little ones, understanding every word they’d say, their jokes, their song, their plots” (1-5). The first line, “my Spanish isn’t enough” is very important because it let me knows the problem is about communication. The word, “enough” makes me understand …show more content…
Mora writes in the poem, “Embarrassed at mispronouncing words, embarrassed at the laughter of her children, the grocer” (16-18). It is common for many immigrants to feel embarrassed if they have a thick accent. The speaker is trying to learn English, but everyone laughing at her is not helping they only discourages her. For this reason, she “locks herself in the bathroom” to avoid embarrassing herself. Elena is excluding herself from the outside and her family because she doesn’t want to be made fun of. Elena confidence and self-esteem is low at this point. It is sad that the speaker has to hide even from her own family to avoid any type of humiliation. As a result, the speaker doesn’t feel comfortable practicing her English around