Risa Booe, 35, is excited when she goes through the drive-through at Dairy Queen.
For a while a language barrier prevented Booe from doing something as simple as ordering food at a drive-through window. Booe's first language is Thai, which made life during her early time in America rough.
"They (fast-food workers) get upset sometimes," she said.
With help from instructors at Thorn Hill Education Center's English as a Second Language (ESL) program she was able to adjust to English and life in Kentucky.
Booe met her husband, Charles, who owns Rebecca Ruth Candies, at a dinner party when he was visiting friends in her home country of Thailand.
The couple had a traditional Thai wedding in her homeland, then had a second ceremony in America before settling here. She said she has been in the U.S. for 11 years.
Booe spoke of her experience before the Thorn Hill Education Center's Volunteer and Community Appreciation Luncheon Thursday. Booe was the luncheon's guest speaker.
She said when she arrived in the States her English was very limited.
"(I could only speak) a little bit, only 20 words or something," she said. "The first year it was really hard."
She said she also watched a lot of TV, especially cartoons, to help pick up the language.
"I learned from TV and listened to what they are talking about," she said.
She said in her home in northeastern Thailand, English is rarely spoken or offered in school so for the last several years she's been attending classes twice a week to learn the language.
"All the teachers are nice and try to make it easy for us," she said. "We're lucky the teachers listen to us."
She said instructors interact with students and students use books and computers to learn the language. She said one of her favorite parts of the class was the diversity in students, some from Mexico, Korea and Vietnam.
"I met all different people from all different countries," she said. "We help each other, we shared a lot."
Her English skills have vastly improved, to the point where she obtained a driver's license in 2000 and passed the U.S. citizenship test last year.
"I can go anywhere I want," she said. "Everything is much better."
Now that she's taking courses at Thorn Hill to get a GED, Booe said she still struggles with English but credits the class for helping her communicate.
Booe and her husband have two children, ages 7 and 9, who primarily speak English. She said she is helping them to learn her native language.
"Saturday we try to speak Thai," she said.
Booe's husband said Thorn Hill is invaluable to his wife and the community.
"The ESL program has been very beneficial for my wife and is a wonderful community service that Thorn Hill provides," he said. "They helped cater to my wife's specific needs and adapted some of her study environments so she was able to obtain specific training for things like passing the written portions of the driver's license test, passing the written portions of the citizenship test."
His wife spoke to the luncheon crowd about the how Thorn Hill helped her and Thorn Hill Director Peg Harmon commended Booe on her hard work.
"We are very proud of Risa Booe," Harmon said.