Learner Spotlight: Nicola

We invite you to meet Nicola, our featured student this month in our “Learner Spotlight”.  Featured adult learners represent the Literacy Council’s programs, including authors from Reflections: Voices of English Learners, the Literacy Council’s literary magazine, as well as adult learners in other programs. Nicola contributed several stories to the eighth edition.

My name is Nicola B., and I was born in Italy a long time ago. I moved to Frederick during the COVID pandemic, in October 2020. My first years here were difficult for many reasons— one of the biggest challenges was communication. I started taking classes at the Literacy Council to improve my spoken and written English. The people I’ve met over the years have been very kind, and they have helped me a lot in reaching my goals. My journey is still ongoing, but I want to say thank you to everyone who works at the Literacy Council.

We hope you enjoy Nicola’s written works, “Climate Change”, “How to Learn a New Language?”, and “Fall”. View all of our students’ stories on our Reflections: Voices of English Learners web page. Below is one of Nicola’s articles.

“Fall”

We have four seasons, and they are different in temperature, light, and weather. Spring starts on the 20th of March. Nature wakes up, trees start to have leaves, animals come out of the underground burrows, the days will be longer and a little bit warmer. The 20th of June starts summer; the days are very long and hot, with nice weather and less rain. The fall starts on the 22nd of September. During this season the temperature and light decrease, but nature starts to change and the leaves have more than a thousand brilliant colors; it is like watching a painting. Winter starts the 21st of December when the days are shorter and coldest. We have snow and the only animals you can find are birds.

Each of these seasons are very special, but my favorite season is the fall. In this season in my town, we have the harvest of grapes, it is hard work, and the days are very long working days. During the night the grapes are worked to make the wine. In this time the people stay together to help each other, and there is so much work, but sometimes you don’t get tired because you are happy! (Sometimes it is also the alcohol.)

I like the fall because I remember the days when I was a young and strong man, when I went to help my neighbors or my uncle with the harvest. They were so happy, and they looked at me with a big smile, and I was happy too. Maybe one day I will go back again, but the nostalgia is the feelings I have now, and I know that those days won’t come back. The people I left 15 years ago are now different from how I remember them. The people that I knew are alive only in my mind now.

Read Nicola’s other stories and more student stories in our 8th edition of Reflections.