Chinese immigrant shares story
Ji Guang Li grew up in China. He used to work on a ship for four years before immigrating to the United States in 1995 so he can get more education. He then took classes for two to three years at Portland Community College, and then transferred to Portland State University to get his Bachelor’s in English in 2002. He recently got his Masters in English and finished his “Teaching English to Non-Native Speakers” certification. When Li became a citizen, he got information on the history of the United States. When asked about his citizenship test, Li said “When I went to [the INS office], the INS officer asked me one question. He gave me a piece of paper and said ‘Please write down the word Grocery.’ When I handed [back the paper] to him he said ‘Okay, you can go now.’ That was the test I had when I became a citizen.” Li was a presenter during English as a Second Language Awareness week. Li stared writing poems in English around the year 2000. The poem to the left is one of Li’s most recent works, written in 2004.
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