Little Ketchup Girl: The Journey to Confidence

"How hard can it be to go up to the counter at McDonald’s and ask for ketchup? The answer might depend on how confident you are in English.”

How confident are you with anything unknown? How willing are you to learn?

Sometimes trauma can leave people irreversibly damaged. Other times trauma can inadvertently fuel a fire to impact your world and make a difference in the lives of others.

How do you fuel your fire? How do you impact people? Many that know me would say my confidence, determination and heart stand out as my strengths. What most do not know is my road was first filled with trauma, struggle and failure.

The journey of learning and confidence never ends. Even in moments of doubt, struggle and the sheer unknown it’s important to focus on how far you have come and obstacles you have survived and conquered. Let adversity fuel your fire. This podcast is a glimpse into the challenges my family faced in our journey of becoming American. I invite you to listen to a story of confidence and determination: The Little Ketchup Girl.

This story was beautifully captured by my mentor, friend and inspiration: Steve Leeven. For Steve, being an inspiring leader and building a successful company from ground up is not enough. He wants to leave a legacy larger than life by creating America the Bilingual. 

America the Bilingual

Episode 6: Little Ketchup Girl

How hard can it be to go up to the counter at McDonald’s and ask for ketchup? The answer might depend on how confident you are in English.

Michelle Bazargan was a little girl when bombs began exploding outside her home in Tehran. It was then that her mother decided it was too dangerous to remain. Thus begins the story of one Iranian family and their challenges of becoming American. Sometimes trauma can leave people irreversibly damaged. Other times trauma can leave people irreversibly dedicated to helping others. Listen to episode 6 of America the Bilingual to hear what happened when that little girl grew up.

Listen on SoundCloud The Little Ketchup Girl or iTunes: America the Bilingual by Steve Leveen on iTunes

Michelle has a strong commitment for motivating, inspiring and helping others. Michelle spoke at Tedx Boca Raton on the “The Value of Deep Human Connection in a High Tech World”. She also speaks on the topic of innovation and invention and also speaks at various school programs to encourage careers in STEM and several other events. TEDx Talk by Michelle Bazargan.

America the Bilingual is a storytelling podcast for Americans who are learning their next language, or would like to start. It also puts forth a vision of an America where it is normal to be bilingual. Subscribe on iTunes or wherever you listen to podcasts and hear a new episode every two weeks.

Iranian Americans in Literature : So many talented authors have written about the American immigrant experience. One of these is Andre Dubus III, author of House of Sand and Fog, a book that, although I read it 15 years ago, still lives in me, and still shakes me. Written in the author’s car in the dark early morning hours before he began his real job, House of Sand and Fog became a finalist for the 1999 National Book Award in fiction. It also became a movie starring Ben Kingsley, Jennifer Connelly and Iranian actress Shohreh Aghdashloo, who won an Academy Award nomination for best supporting actress.

Credits American the Bilingual is part of the Lead with Languages campaign of ACTFL — The American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages.

This episode was written by me, Steve Leveen, and our producer Fernando Hernández who also does sound design and mixing. Our editorial consultants are Maja Thomas and Mim Harrison, research assistance from Associate Producer, Beckie Rankin.

Graphic Arts are created by Carlos Plaza Design Studio.

Music

Music and sounds in this episode, licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike License, by:

Kevin Macleod — Beach Party and Quasi motion

Francisco Penilla —Bombita

Jorge Mario Zuleta — Falta seis

Monplaisir — terror party

Mystery Mammal — upright

Sounds and Fx

Yle Arkisto — Bombing, air raid alarm, mix

Danielson III — Rumble bass

Paisagemsonoraunila — At the bus terminal near the bus with the engine running

Dggrunzweig — Sound of bus

Stevious42 — Inside moving bus

Noise collector — Mcdonalds

Additional Music

https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Drake_Stafford/SUNDAY/Dolos

https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Artofescapism/ (ESCAPE, ADVENTURE)

https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Monplaisir/Cheap_Imitation/Monplaisir_-_Cheap_Imitation_-_03_Grab_your_guitar_we_have_to_fight (playful mistery)

https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Monplaisir/Cheap_Imitation/Monplaisir_-_Cheap_Imitation_-_04_At_This_Point_I_Dont_Know (invasion preamble)