Reflections and Recipes Revealed

About the Book

In this concise, candid and compelling book, immigrants from over a dozen countries reveal some of their experiences while learning English in the United States. Immigrants come to the Land of Freedom for various reasons. The students who have agreed to share their experiences all came here as service members, spouses of soldiers or relatives of someone affiliated with the military. Although some have earned degrees in their countries, they are hesitant to interact or speak for fear of being misunderstood or ridiculed because of their inability to speak or understand English. Difficulties associated with obtaining employment and communicating effectively surface because of the language barrier. This barrier diminishes their self esteem and alters their attitudes. There are those who have actually returned to their countries out of frustration. In this book, these are the voices of those students who decided to stay and immerse themselves into the learning process. They believe they can acquire the language skills and customs necessary to participate and contribute in some measure to their families and society. Additionally, they decided to share some of delectable dishes which dominate their domains. With cuisine, there is no language barrier.

About the Author

The author, currently an ESL instructor at Central Texas College, Fort Hood, TX. is a candidate for a Master’s Degree, International Relations, at St. Mary’s University. She was a Journalism Instructor at the Defense Information school, Ft. Meade, MD and Ft. Benjamin Harrison, Indianapolis, Ind. and a Public Affairs Non-Commissioned Officer/Broadcast Journalist with the First Cavalry Division. She is familiar with several languages and graduated in the top ten percent of her Russian language course at the Defense Language Institute, Monterey, CA. She was the editor for the Berlin Observer, Berlin, Germany and various military newspapers in the United States. She has written poems, in brochure format, and articles for military newspapers in Germany and the United States.