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"In Dubai, the colleges are in English, but it's more of a modern country."

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"In Dubai, the colleges are in English, but it's more of a modern country."

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No, that's not good. We're in America, you need to know English. This is what I don't like about some people living here, it's their country. We came to this country. At the end of the day, I know 50% of my heart says this is home...I don't like that idea, everybody needs to learn English.

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Mahsa and I.

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Mahsa and her sister.

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Are you glad that you were forced to learn English?

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Are you glad that you were forced to learn English?

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Yes. It made my educational experience a lot easier.

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Mahsa's parents.

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Advice to future teachers for equitable opportunity to learn?

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Advice to future teachers for equitable opportunity to learn?

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I feel that sometimes teachers are not so acceptable of the diverse people. I know it's not their problem that I moved here and didn't know English. If they're more acceptable and try to understand, it would be nice.

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I could move here and go find a job in a Persian store and makes some money. My culture has a really positive effect on my education. But the language part: I still have issues with it. I still get questions on exams that I don't know. One thing, I still study in Farsi, especially biology! I still have difficulty communicating with my professors.

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Would you say you side with one culture more than the other?

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Would you say you side with one culture more than the other?

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Persian. I mean I don't want to. Because it's not right, I know it has it's up and downs, the ups are a lot more than downs. I feel mixed about it. I don't know which culture to have loyalty to. My Persian culture is me. The American culture may be right, but I feel I would be cheating on my Persian culture.

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When you can't read your book, it's so difficult. It would be really hard for me to understand the paragraph, I would go back and re-read it.

I would read a sentence and I wouldn't know 4 words of it and I don't like to skip it because it would lose it's meaning, you know? So it was frustrating and hard, but I got a little better. But I still have problems.

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I remember when I first moved here, when I would talk to blonde people, I would get so nervous because they were like the real American people.

I would feel comfortable talking to a Mexican person even though they were born here and were American, but when they look a little like me, I feel more comfortable.

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In our culture we all have to go to college, even if you don't want to...It's difficult when your family has high expectations from you even though they're not really educated about the education over here. Like, how my parents expect me to be a doctor. Maybe 2 years ago or a year ago, I didn't want that myself but now I want it because I'm more interested.

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It makes it really hard on me because I don't want to disappoint [my parents] or even when I think about not going to medical school or when I get a bad grade, it's now how I feel about myself it's how I let down my family, not just me.

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I chose my friend Mahsa to interview about her language and culture story. She moved to the Oceanside, CA from Dubai in June of 2012 to pursue the "American Dream." She was only 18 years old. She knows an impressive 4 languages: Farsi, English, Arabic, and Urdu. She lived in Dubai and Iran. When she moved to The States, she knew little English, but was able to learn English in just one year! Mahsa started her schooling endeavor at a local Oceanside community college, MiraCosta College. She graduated from MiraCosta with a 3.98 GPA and transferred to UC Irvine to pursue her dream of becoming a physician. In this padlet, I highlight key quotes that describe her very own language and culture story throughout her education and journey of immigrating to the US.

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Describe Persian Culture vs. American Culture.

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Describe Persian Culture vs. American Culture.

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Orientation of the family. Over here you can leave your family and have your friends, but we have to stay with our family.

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We have a really different culture here. The relationship with family is different. The way we have to respect them no matter their age is. I feel that that's the really big main difference. The fact that we don't have the freedom that you have here, such as thinking or having your own personality, or way of thinking.

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I don't know. It's like its 50/50 home is kinda here in Oceanside, but i lived in Dubai for 18 years and I have memories and they're not good memories.... I really had a difficult time there and when I moved here everything changed.

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What are you religious and spiritual beliefs? 

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What are you religious and spiritual beliefs? 

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[laughs] None.

My dad is the same and my mom is Muslim.

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I guess I'm middle eastern, right?