At Jesuit we pride ourselves on our diversity, and rightfully so as we have a myriad of students who have lived in other countries. This diversity is highlighted by our students who have lived overseas, who speak different language and bring different cultures to Jesuit. Bruno Brenes, Allen Madathil, Ross Minigutti and Andrew Kim are those students, and they have been very kind in sharing their story with us.
Bruno Brenes ’16 lived in Costa Rica for eight years and moved to the United States without knowing any English. He was born in Brazil, then moved to Costa Rica shortly after. The biggest change from Costa Rica according to Bruno is the fast paced lifestyle in America. “In Costa Rica everybody is very relaxed and then here sometimes it seems like people just don’t stop moving.” Furthermore he said that Costa Rica is very “colloquial” and that over there they don’t even have street signs, they just navigate off of landmarks. Bruno enjoys the slow life of Costa Rica, and his family takes trip back every year to see relatives and to stay in the house that they still own there. Bruno moved to America when his mother got engaged to an American, and so his family moved to Dallas to be with him. Bruno could easily get an A in Spanish, but instead he takes French as he believes that you should never stop learning new languages, because they can help you in a foreign country. Despite all of the differences, Bruno enjoys living in America and is happy he moved.
Allen Madathil ’14 has lived in Italy, India and Dubai, where he stayed for 7 years. He was born in India, but did not stay there very long. Allen moved to America in 2006, however while at Dubai he went to an English speaking international school. To Allen, life in Dubai compared to Dallas is “not that different” as in Dubai it is also very fast paced. A challenge to Allen when moving to America was learning to use American spelling and vocabulary as he was taught English pronunciation and spelling. “I said I had a torch… and they said don’t you mean a flashlight?” Allen said that he quickly adapted to American lifestyle, saying that he changed his accent within the first month of moving. Allen still keeps in touch with his relatives from Dubai, stating that family is very important to him and he and his family are very close. Allen and his family is glad that they moved to America, but they still miss relatives back home.
Ross Minigutti ’14 lived in Aviano, Italy, a town just north of Venice, because his father is in the military. “I’d go to school in the military base with a bunch of Americans and then in the afternoon I would go to an Italian school where the nuns there would translate to English… so I didn’t really have learn to speak or anything.” Although some might say that living near Venice would be amazing, Ross thought otherwise. “I’d just see the sewage drain and the water is green, and it’s pretty scary getting on a gondola.” He even said that getting off of a gondola was “one of the scariest moments of my life.”Ross is glad that he spent time in Italy, but is very glad to be back in America where he speaks the language and can be with other people similar to himself.
Andrew Kim ’15 was born in South Korea and lived there for ten years. “It’s very different from here,” Andrew believes that people in South Korea are more fast paced than people here. Furthermore school in South Korea “is much harder than this… They go to school at five in the morning and come back home at one in the morning.. ..that’s a normal life in Korea for high schoolers.” School in Korea is a lot more competitive and because of that everyone is trying to work harder to get into a good college. “If I was in Korea then I wouldn’t have any social life.” The society in Korea for Andrew is much more strict and disciplined, especially academically. “Everything is different, culture-wise, language-wise, religious-wise.” Andrew still speaks Korean with his family, and goes back to South Korea often to see family and friends. Andrew is glad that he could move to America so that he could live an American lifestyle.
