Valerio was an assistant accountant in Mexico before coming to the U.S. His lack of proficiency in English is an obstacle for him to get the same kind of work in the U.S. and since obtaining his social security number a few months after his arrival in the U.S., he worked at several custodial jobs in the Portland area. He changed jobs to ensure he could be home at certain hours to balance child-care responsibilities with his wife.

On several occasions, Valerio expressed his frustration with the difficulties that come with being an adult language learner who identifies strongly with a profession. During Valerio's third interview (August, 2005), he discussed how he had expectations for work in the U.S. (as an accountant) that he came to realize were unrealistic.

Valerio:	When I think when I think of (this year) I think I can work for my (CPO) in Mexico. But (.) I don't know why I did this thing because here is only speak English and I never take class for English.
IR:	Okay,
Valerio:	So when I come here I look for job for accounting but I don't have (.) idea (.) what I need.
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During the same interview, when he reports what his past job was and current job is, he tries to remain optimistic about the work as a custodian, adding quickly, "that's fine…because I learning more English" after reporting the contrasting job status.

IR:	Okay. And what do you used to do in (.) Mexico?
Valerio:	Accounting. I working in my country for five years.
IR:	Okay.
Valerio:	But here custodial.((smiles)).=That's fine. That's fine. Because I learning more English. I practice more English. And (.) that's a new experience for me.
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In a homework assignment from 2004 entitled "What stresses us out", Valerio was already characterizing his work situation as a source of stress and unsatisfactory because of the lower status due to his lack of English proficiency (Click to View).

Valerio reported in interviews that he did not have a great deal of opportunities to speak English on the job. In fact, a year later he reported disliking his job a great deal and that he was discriminated against because of race and ethnicity.

In the classroom (June, 2005), in an exercise in which students were to tell one another what about their lives had changed since coming to the U.S., Valerio first mentions his clothes in the context of work.

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This interaction with a classmate, MJ, shows Valerio displaying his feeling of a large change in status from his job in Mexico to his job in the U.S. We see in transcript how MJ also orients to this as a large change in status expressing her surprise with the news marker ‘oh' in line 20 and the surprise marker ‘wow' in line 22.

Valerio, like other immigrant-learners in our study, characterizes life in the U.S., especially regarding work, as ‘starting over' as he stated in his 2006 interview:

Valerio:	So, um, for Mexico I had a good salary, everything was really good,
IR:	yeah
Valerio:	but, um, I had to come here, and so I had to start again, because I didn't know any English. When you are at zero, you can't get any lower.