I come from Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, where I lived nearly 30 years before moving to Cranston. I worked 15 years for 5-star hotels in Vietnam, including Sofitel and M Gallery hotels (Accor group), Renaissance Hotel (Marriott group). My typical activities were meetings with travel agents and tour operators to do hotel presentations, deal with contracts or showcasing hotel products to customers. I also traveled abroad to attend tourism trade shows or sales trips.
I am attending PPL’s RIFLI Advanced English classes now. This is my first class after arriving in the United States. Even though I can communicate by English, I always want to improve my conversation and writing skills. I also want to have chances to practice more.
It is such a great experience to study in this class. My classmates are super friendly. My teacher, Jon, is very enthusiastic and helpful. He is always patient and encourages us to be more confident to speak up.
I find myself more confident in verbal communication and writing skills. This month I took the Accuplacer test to register for CCRI classes. My scores in reading and writing are quite good thanks to the Library class.
I was inspired by teacher Jon when he encouraged our class to write essays, share in our class and post to the blog of our class. He also connected some of our classmates with The Public Radio (Mosaic Community essays) so that they can have their essays recorded and shared with the community. I hesitated so much when I submitted my first essay that shares my experience during my first couple months in the U. S. However, teacher Jon did give me some compliments and the advice to fine tune my essay, and also encouraged me to share with The Public Radio. I took his advice and had my essay recorded and aired in December 2022. It is definitely a great experience.
Editor’s Note: We are pleased to be able to include Xuan’s Mosaic essay about her experience of making the decision to move to the U.S. to reconnect with family:
Listen to Xuan Huynh’s Mosaic Community essay here: https://explore.thepublicsradio.org/stories/one-step/