There are lots of Sylheti people who live in England. From my family it was only me that moved here. I got married to a man from England, Bangladeshi of course. I was 18, so I was quite excited. It was England, you know! When we were small we used to think that there were apple trees and grape trees in the streets and that the pavements were made of gold. And I thought it would be like the pictures in the television and books. You have this beautiful image in your mind of how things will be like. The reality is hard work!

At that time my husband was working in a carpet mill as a supervisor. He has a big family so he had to maintain them as well in Bangladesh, sending money from here. He had six brothers and three sisters; my father-in-law was only a headmaster in Bangladesh so life was quite hard for him. When I first came to England I remember that there was a house in Queens Road and I stayed with some family friends for a year. Straight away I had a little baby and then I started struggling because I was young. I couldn't speak English. Now people who want to come to England have to do a citizenship and English exam – I have heard it's really hard. Even people that have lived here all their lives don't understand half the questions. When I came we had nothing like that. I just knew ‘yes’, ‘no’, things like that. Gradually I thought, ‘If I’m going to stay here, I have to learn!’ I wanted to say something but I couldn't say it. I’d be thinking, ‘Oh, it's going to be wrong.’ Then I realised it will probably keep me down, so I kept getting things wrong until eventually I started to get them right. I was just trying, through watching television with the children, going to the shops and by watching people you know how they were talking and how they were interacting.