Prime Time 8. Coursebook plus Semester Self-checks, Schulbuch

S My immigrant experience was easy. My parents brought me here when I was seven. New languages and new cultures are simple for a seven-year-old to pick up. Starting over isn’t hard when you’ve just barely started. My parents’ immigrant experience is another story. My father Vladimir was 36 when we came to Los Angeles in 1975, but he did not know English. My mother Anne knew English, but her career in Russia was as a journalist, not a job that transferred well to America. My father had worked for 15 years as a computer programmer in Russia, so his skills carried over. But his resume didn’t carry over. He had to start work as an entry-level computer operator, just as my mother had to retrain herself as a secretary. And of course they came here with no money and no other tangible assets. Yet they had distinct assets, of the sort that millions of other immigrants brought with them. First, they were willing to take calculated risks. Before they came, they had little information on how good America really was. However, they had figured out enough about America to realise that it was worth trying to get here, even if that meant abandoning their successful careers, their friends and the language and culture of their birth. Second, they were willing to work very hard and they insisted that their children worked hard. They knew they couldn’t count on college degrees, test scores or even raw intelligence. They knew that only effort and determination could lift them up, and lift up our family. Third, they cared deeply about educating their children – not just sending us to college, but making sure that we actually learned things. Over time I realised that in many ways I was schooled at home. I learned to read and write Russian and English at home. I learned a good deal about history and geography at home, since I liked to read about such things. I learned maths from my father at home. I learned computer programming, which became my first career, from my father. Along with programming, I learned work habits. I got my first part-time job as a computer programmer when I was twelve; the experience of actually working was more educational than most of my formal education. Child labour is bad when it interferes with a child’s education. But working as a teenager – and even younger – was a critical part of my education. Fourth, my parents came to America looking for freedom. They don’t involve themselves in public policy debates. They don’t talk politics much. But they know how frustrating it is when you can’t freely talk politics. They know how constraining it is when you can’t start your own business. But what I most came to appreciate from that experience is that many of the old clichés are true. America is the land of opportunity. If you work hard enough, you can succeed, even if – like my father – you speak with an accent and come from a nation with which the US is in a cold war. And sometimes abandoning everything you have and know, and moving half a world away in search of freedom and opportunity, is the smartest decision you can make for yourself and for your family. (Eugene Volokh, The Washington Post , 13 July 2015; adapted) Unit 4: Migration Reading–writing: My immigrant experience (B2) a) First, read the following text about an immigrant’s experience in the US. 1 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 70 75 b) Go through the text again and underline/highlight words and phrases that come up repeatedly. Then find alternative expressions/sentences. c) As the son/daughter of immigrants you have been asked to submit an article to your local paper about ways to integrate foreigners into the community. In your article you should: analyse the most important problems immigrants face when they arrive in their new home country describe ways how immigrants can make a living give advice on the most important aspects of migration Write around 250 words . 130 Semester self-checks Nur zu Prüfzwecken – Eigentum des Verlags öbv