In this episode, we have the story of Jussineia Silva, and ex-customer experience manager from São Paulo that came to New York in 2022 to improve her English skills. In this episode, she explains how her ESL program incorporates hybrid classes, and how her experiences living In New York accelerate learning.

Episode transcription

Jussineia: You can have fun, The best way to learn a language is having fun.

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THIS IS RAQUEL NERIS, AND YOU’RE LISTENING TO ENGLISH LEARNERS IN NEW YORK CITY. IN THIS EPISODE, WE HAVE THE STORY OF JUSSINEIA SILVA, AND EX-CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE MANAGER FROM SÃO PAULO THAT CAME TO NEW YORK IN 2022 TO IMPROVE HER ENGLISH SKILLS. IN THIS EPISODE, SHE EXPLAINS HOW HER ESL PROGRAM INCORPORATES HYBRID CLASSES, AND HOW HER EXPERIENCES LIVING IN NEW YORK ACCELERATE LEARNING.

LET’S LISTEN TO JUSSI’S STORY.

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Jussineia: As I said, I’m Jussi, I’m 36 years old and I’m from Brazil, uh, in Brazil, I used to work as a customer experience manager in a tech company for, like, in my last company, I was working there for eight years. 

Well, uh, I’ve been trying learning English for a while. If you, you’ll say all the time, like when we start, we stop and we start again, I would say 10 years. But when you see the time that I really study English, now it’s almost two years. So that’s the real time, like, really studying for real. And I, I try to study in Brazil and you, you do can learn in Brazil, you can learn the grammar, you can learn a lot. But when it comes to pronouncing better, what I’m still working on this, as you can learn, you can see there, but I feel like being here, uh, being in the environment, having American friends and stay immersed in the culture, in the country, that for sure helps you a lot to learn English faster and better. So that’s why I decided to come to US to study English here. And I found this good school that I’m studying now for a year. Uh, and of course as many people who come here, uh, you kinda fall in love for the country, for the culture, for all the liberty that you have here. So that’s my point. Now, I really fall in love with this country. 

Raquel: Why did you decide to come to New York?

Jussineia: Wow. That’s a funny story. Actually, New York wasn’t my first choice. Uh, I’m totally a countryside person in that way. Like, I really like your mountains. So my first thought actually was go to Denver in Colorado, Colorado. And then my friends, I have two friends, and they were, Jussi, we wanna go with you to the US to study English as well, but we wanna go to New York. I was, well, if we are going in three, then we can share the rent, all the, the bills that we have here. That’s amazing! Then, I was, okay, let’s look about New York City. And I started looking about New York City. I’m from Sao Paulo, Brazil. So, I felt like, wow, it’s kind of similar. Maybe it’ll be easier for me to adapt because it’s, uh, close, uh, the way the city is. You have the big city, you have parks. So, it’s pretty similar. And then at the final, they are not here. I came by myself. They changed. They went to Canada! [LAUGHTER]

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IT PROBABLY WASN’T EASY FOR JUSSI TO HAVE HER FRIENDS CHANGING PLANS AT THE LAST MINUTE. HOWEVER, AS SHE HAD GOOD HUMOR AND FLEXIBILITY, SHE WAS ABLE TO OVERCOME THIS UNEXPECTED SITUATION.

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Jussineia: I’ve been living by myself in Brazil for a while. So, I had my own apartment. I used to live, uh, in a great neighborhood, so I had a level of life that here in New York City, I cannot afford it. Because my money comes from Brazil to here. So you have to change, for $1, you have to pay five real. 

My decision was, I cannot rent an apartment by myself here. It’s impossible. So I rent a room here. I’d say that the final was good. I learned a lot about how to live with other people. You have to share this space. You have to share so many. But the person that I live with, It’s an amazing person, so I ended up in the best place I could choose here in New York City. Yeah, she’s really amazing. She makes me feel like we kind of kinda have a bond that we are family now. I’d say that I’m lucky, actually, to find her. 

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JUSSI WAS LUCKY TO FIND NOT ONLY A PERSON TO HELP HER PAY THE RENT BUT A REAL FRIEND. SHE ALSO VALUED HER SHARING EXPERIENCE AS ANOTHER POSITIVE OUTCOME. 

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Jussineia: There’s a rule that says that people who are living here for more than seven years, they are New York, right? So, she’s living here now for 22 years, but she’s from Ukraine. She’s really, really nice person. But we also have the difference in cultures, because she’s from, uh, Ukraine. I’m from Brazil. But the good part is that we can share our culture. We can mix and create new culture for our environment here, uh, inside our house. I’d say that that’s a good experience for people to get off to the common box that we always live in. So, I’ve been living by myself, uh, in the way that I always like to live, and I have to change and create a new environment, and I feel like that is so great. You learn a lot, so it’s really nice. 

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LATER IN OUR CONVERSATION, JUSSI TALKED ABOUT HER EXPERIENCE ATTENDING CLASSES. JUST AS A CURIOSITY, JUSSI STUDIES IN THE SAME SCHOOL THAT I ATTENDED FROM JANUARY 2020 TO APRIL 2021. THE DIFFERENCE IS THAT I STUDIED RIGHT BEFORE AND DURING THE COVID-19 LOCKDOWN, WHEREAS JUSSI STARTED HER COURSE AFTER THAT. IT WAS INTERESTING FOR ME TO DISCOVER HOW THE SCHOOL EVOLVED ITS SERVICES BY OFFERING HYBRID CLASSES. 

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Jussineia: The class is still online, uh, but on Fridays, I have the in-person class, what is really nice. So, the whole week, I can do, like, from Monday to Thursday, I can have online class, and then on Fridays, I go in person to class, so I can meet my, my co, uh, classmates. We can go for a lunch together. Is the time that you can really share. 

I have to say that I’m really impressive. In the first week, I was really impressed that, how they can do the online class be so human class, you know? You feel connected to anyone because the teachers, they are so well prepared to, to put people to talk. Sometimes they divide us into small groups so we can really talk to each other. Uh,  we can explain some stuff in English. So, uh, I really don’t feel like a huge difference, uh, between the online class and the in the in-person class in the respect of the knowledge. The knowledge difference is that if you are in-person class, after class, you can go to somewhere, you can. Sometimes, we go to grab a beer, like at 2:00 PM, we go, have lunch, grab a beer together and you can talk something about personal life, if you wanna share something. 

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HOW TO TURN ONLINE CLASSES “HUMAN”? DURING THE LOCKDOWN IN 2020, THAT WAS THE MILLION-DOLLAR QUESTION. LEARNING HOW TO ENGAGE STUDENTS WAS VERY DIFFICULT, ESPECIALLY IN ESL PROGRAMS IN WHICH SOME PEOPLE HAVE MORE INTEREST IN MAINTAINING A STATUS THAN LEARNING ENGLISH. 

THE GOOD PART OF THIS IS THAT SCHOOLS LEARNED HOW TO USE TECHNOLOGY TO INCREASE COURSES’ FLEXIBILITY. BEING IN PERSON BECAME A MORE MEANINGFUL EXPERIENCE IN WHICH STUDENTS WOULD DO WHAT CANNOT BE DONE ONLINE: EXPLORE THE CITY WITH FRIENDS.

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Jussineia: Every week they do some extra activities, like, go to museums, go to some specific parties. I think two weeks ago, uh, we were together to watch the match, the soccer game. Uh, it was New York City and Miami and it was amazing. And guess who we saw there: David Beckham! When you do those, uh, activities, we put yourself in different contexts so, you can talk about different topics. We can share opinions. Uh, we can have fun. The best way to learn a language is having fun.

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I WAS HAPPY TO KNOW THAT HAVING A GOOD TIME WITH COLLEAGUES WAS HELPING JUSSI IMPROVE HER ENGLISH SKILLS. IT WAS ALSO A RESULT OF HER EFFORT TO CONNECT WITH INTERNATIONAL PEOPLE, AS WITH THEM, SHE CAN ONLY SPEAK IN ENGLISH.

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Jussineia: I try to avoid the Brazilian community because I feel if I go outside with Brazilian, I am going to speak Portuguese. And the point that I’m in here and that I spent sooo much money is because I need to learn English, I need to improve my communication, and I know I have a huge way to walk through this. I try to bond with people from other counters. No, also, I’m not saying that it cannot be Latin people. Of course, I can stay with Colombians… Actually I have a friend, two friends from Colombia. They are kind of my best friends now, so, but we speak English, so you have to put yourself out there, try hard to communicate, and it’s really nice to meet people from all of the world. So I feel it’s, uh, a huge and, uh, amazing experience when we study in a school that everyone there,  they are from different countries. And again, you can share, we can learn more about life in the difference and about to respect. So, I’m really, I’m really happy for doing this now. 

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IN ADDITION TO THE LEISURE MOMENTS JUSSI WAS HAVING WITH HER SCHOOLMATES, OTHER ACTIVITIES COLLABORATED WITH HER LEARNING IN PROMOTING SELF-CONFIDENCE.

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Jussineia: I really love also, stand up comedy. So I usually go to places that they have, they have the open mic, the artists, they go to test their jokes, so you talk to them. And then I made some friends from that environment. Yeah, I think it was like five months ago. I was like, I wish you could do this. And then I decided to do it, the open mic in English! [LAUGHTER] I prepared all my jokes and I went to the place and I was, guys, today I wanna do this. And then I did my own stand up comedy comment there. It was five minutes, but it was amazing. Everybody was so impressed that, how could you do this? Because I was telling them, like, I don’t know how to speak English so well, but I really wanna try it. And it ended up, like, it was funny and everybody was laughing about my jokes.

When you go to another country to learn English, you have to put yourself there. You have to try. So I’ve been trying to, and get out of my comfort zone every time. If I have a chance, I try to do something. 

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“PUT YOURSELF THERE” IS KEY TO LEARNING A NEW LANGUAGE, BUT YOU DON’T HAVE TO BE IN A STAGE TO DO THAT. SIMPLE THINGS, LIKE INTERACTING WITH THE PEOPLE IN YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD, CAN ALSO HELP A LOT.

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Jussineia: There’s something about the community here, uh, that I feel like everybody, they try to be friends. So if you go to the grocery store and you were buying something and then you were looking some product, someone you approach and, oh, have you tried this before? It’s that good. So you start talking with people that you don’t. But it’s really good cause I was one day at the grocery store and there was someone there, and also I saw this person looking to a product and it was something that I wanna buy. Because you have to always make this rate about a dollar in real, you buy when you really need something. And then I asked, like, how, how is this product? Is it really good? Should I try? Oh yeah. It’s amazing. I buy every week because it’s really good and then I decided to try the product, and then we exchanged, uh, cell phone numbers and then we ended up the other week having lunch together. So it was a woman, a super nice person.

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TO MY SURPRISE, JUSSI WAS ALSO KEEN ON SOCIAL MEDIA TO START NEW CONNECTIONS.

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Jussineia: I found on Instagram. Uh, there’s a lot of. My favorite one is actually the Upper Side group because it’s only for women. So you feel kind of safe to share some information and you can go out of the girls. But on Instagram you always can find a group. Uh, you put it in the neighborhood and you gonna find some person that is sharing tips about the neighborhood.

And then they create a group. So everybody can, can share something and then make some deals. Like, let’s grab coffee, let’s grab a beer together. And then you get up with people. They are far from their family, from their friends. They have to create a new community, uh, new bonds here. So it’s a way to facilitate that and put people together to not feel alone.

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AT THIS POINT, IT SEEMED TO ME THAT JUSSI WAS WELL ADAPTED TO THE CITY AND WASN’T MISSING HER FAMILY, OR AT LEAST NOT AS MOST PEOPLE THAT MOVE TO ANOTHER COUNTRY ALONE. BUT I WAS WRONG.

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Jussineia: Yeah, I’m a family person, so I’ve been trying to live abroad for a while, since I was like 20 years old. And I always put my family first, especially because I have a small family. My family, it’s my mom, my brother, my sister-in-law, they are my family. When I decided to live far, so far from them, it’s not like you take a car, you’ll get there and it’s okay. It was a really hard decision. Uh, but on the other, on the other hand, you have to think about your future as well. So, I know I love my family, I really miss them, but I also need to think about my life and my future, if I’m gonna have kids, what future I need for them. So, but there’s a way, no, now we have technology in our hands. So I can talk to them almost every day. We use FaceTime so we can see each other, we can express our emotions and I hope soon I can go back and visit them and stay there for, I don’t know, 20 days, one month, and then come back again. But it’s not easy, uh, when it’s like, if you keep your days, think about your family. I feel like. You want to pack and bye America! I’m going back to Brazil. But you have to think why did you decide to come to America? There is a reason. Is there a reason worth? if it is, you have to pursue that. And then you have to manage it. Uh, how you miss your family and how you connect to them using technology.

Raquel: Yes, absolutely. You are now, like, you mentioned that you’re from São Paulo. Capital, right? Yes. São Paulo, the city. And you also, like you were working there. Are you still working for Brazil, like, remotely? 

Jussineia: Yeah, I did this. Uh, so I arrived here on March 2022 and I was working to the, the company until July last year. So since July to now. I’m not working. I’m just studying. At the time we were in two hours, uh, difference from Brazil, and then I had to stop working and then the same minute going to online class. So it was kind of crazy but manageable. You can do it, it’s for a while, but at the final decide to not work anymore because I’ve been there for 8 years and you get to a point that, ah, it was an amazing company. Uh, but I got to a point that maybe I wasn’t learning anymore and I wasn’t, uh, helping them that much anymore. So it was, uh, I think it was a smart decision. And then I talked to the owner of the company because I was there for eight years. So we had this open communication and I told him my situation that I wanna be here and I wanna explore more the city, because imagine that I was here working the whole day, studying the night. I had no time to go outside to explore the city. So again, what is the point of being here and not being able to do those stuff? And that’s why I decided to give up my job. And now I’m just studying English and looking for jobs. I’m applying for jobs here. I have been doing some interviews, but there’s the, the question of the visa. So it is not easy to find a company that will sponsor you, but I am still trying. 

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AS JUSSI SAID, IT IS NOT EASY TO FIND A COMPANY TO SPONSOR YOUR VISA. HOWEVER, JUSSI DISCOVERED THAT SHE COULD TRY A DIFFERENT STRATEGY.

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Jussineia: Because of my experience, I have 10 years of experience. I have a degree, a post degree. Now I speak three languages. Uh, I have some awards that I received, uh, along my career. I’m applying for this visa that is for this kind of a professional…

Raquel: And it is, like, you have to gather a lot of documents, right?

Jussineia: Yeah. Uh, that, that’s the point because I’m working on this document now for a month and I feel like I’m gonna work another one. And then when I finish the lawyer, we need another two months to create the whole package, put this together, and it’s create another, uh, uh, the story that we convince them that I’m really good and the country will need me. You have to collect all your diplomas. It doesn’t matter if it’s the bigger one. I mean, if it’s the college, uh, the college and the post degree, or if it’s about the small courses that you have taken in your life, you put it all together. You need the recommendation letters. Uh, I’m doing five recommendation letters.

There’s a lot of, uh, documents that you have to put it together. It is not easy and it is also not a cheap process. 

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JUSSI’S INITIAL PLAN WAS NOT TO STAY FOR MORE THAN ONE YEAR IN NEW YORK, BUT SHE CHANGED HER MIND.

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Jussineia: But I ended up like, that I, I fell in love with the US and I’d say, why? It’s because I think liberty is the good word, because it’s reedom, maybe. Because it’s the freedom to see new opportunities. You have huge opportunities here, uh, is the freedom to walk wherever you want, and what time, what place you can go. You feel free and you feel safe. There’s so many freedom ways that you can live your life here. Even the, the clothes that you are wearing, no one cares about it. So you can go in pajamas in the subway. No one is looking to like, oh, look at her, what is she wearing here? 

I feel like, New York City is so democratic in the way it’s easy to go anywhere here because you have subways. Uh, the streets are easy to walk on it, so, uh, it’s a, it’s a city full of opportunities.

Uh, full of people from all of the world.. So you cannot feel like, that they don’t accept you because you are not American, because have an accent, and I know I have it. Uh, but you feel, you feel welcome here, because they, they are used to have people from all of the world here. 

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IN THE END, JUSSI SHARED HER RECOMMENDATIONS.

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Jussineia: I’d say, and I did do this, so I’d say it’s better do is prepare. In a way, uh, don’t go, don’t come here, like, oh, there, I’m gonna see what I’m gonna do. I’m gonna work. It doesn’t work like this, so make a plan in the way, have money to live six months, if you don’t have a job, if you don’t have any other money coming besides the one you have in your accounts, preparing the way that you have at least six months, but better if you have one year without a job. Have clear: why do you wanna come to the US? Because when you get here and you don’t see your family, and you don’t see your house, you don’t see your space. You don’t recognize yourself sometimes because you are living with the other people that is not your family, and you have to change. Sometimes you have to keep yourself little smaller to adapt to the environment, to be part of, or sometimes you have to go bigger than you are, uh, to feel part of. So, it’s really challenge. But if you have it clear the reasons that why you were here, that will help you to face all the problems that you have here. Uh, all the nights that sometimes you go to bed and you cry because you feel like, what am I doing to my life? I had a job in Brazil. I had a career in Brazil. In my case, I’m 36 years old. I don’t have that time to just spend without nothing. You have to have goals in your life. So, if you wanna come to America, have those in mind. What are your goals coming here? What you want after that? Uh, and have the money. Because if you have the financial and the emotional prepare to this, you go, you can do your best and you can face all the problems, and you can go through and you have your American dream.

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THIS WAS THE STORY OF JUSSINEIA SILVA, A BRAZILIAN ENGLISH LEARNER FROM SAO PAULO THAT CAME TO NEW YORK ONLY TO LEARN ENGLISH AND ENDED UP CHANGING HER PLANS AS SHE FELL IN LOVE WITH THE CITY. SHE SHARED HOW HER SCHOOL SUCCESSFULLY COMBINES ONLINE AND IN-PERSON CLASSES AND HOW PUTTING YOURSELF OUT THERE TO MAKE CONNECTIONS CAN HELP LEVERAGE LEARNING.

IF YOU ARE AN INTERNATIONAL ENGLISH LEARNER IN NEW YORK CITY OR HAVE HAD THIS EXPERIENCE IN THE PAST, SHARE YOUR STORY WITH US. WE WANT TO GIVE YOU A VOICE.

SEE YOU IN THE NEXT EPISODE OF ENGLISH LEARNERS IN NEW YORK CITY.