"I still remember the first English words I spoke on American soil. On a Christmas flight from Hong Kong, I quietly whispered 'Merry Christmas' to a flight attendant. She was distinctly different from anyone I had ever encountered before - blonde-haired, white, warm in demeanor, and effortlessly confident in a language and culture that still felt distant to me. She smiled back kindly, and for a brief moment, I felt that language could bridge the distance between worlds."
-Andy Szeto
A Life in English grows out of the lived experiences of Dr. Andy Szeto, navigating the U.S. school system as a newcomer, first as a child who struggled to be understood and later as an educator responsible for helping others find belonging, creating a personal and reflective narrative that blend memory and insight into a moving reader experience.
About the Book
This book grows out of the lived experiences of Dr. Andy Szeto, navigating the U.S. school system as a newcomer, first as a child who struggled to be understood and later as an educator responsible for helping others find belonging. Andy is not a Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) expert by training, and this is not a technical manual on instruction or policy related to English learners. Rather, this is a personal, reflective, and research-inspired narrative that blends childhood memory with educator insight. His professional journey as a principal supervising ESL teachers and as a professor preparing future school leaders gives him a working familiarity with the field, but his perspective here is distinct. Andy writes not as an outside expert, but as someone who lived the realities he describes.
Andy draws on an autoethnographic approach that values the interplay between lived memory and cultural critique. By telling his story first as a child and later as an educator, he joins a broader tradition of immigrant student voices that illuminate how schooling is experienced from the inside. He revisits what worked for him and what did not, while also considering what might have been possible if different choices had been made. Where appropriate, he connects these memories to informed commentary, not to overshadow the lived experience but to deepen it, offering educators a way to see how his story may offer insights about their own practice.
