Having an isolated younger-life proved to challenge and reshape my individuality, forging me into the person I am today. When I reminisce of my childhood struggle, I find motivation and strength; I feel that my current struggle can be overcome and that I can come out of it a better person. Coming to America at age five proved to be one of the most tremendous challenges I've ever encountered. My family was well off back at the Philippines; my father was a successful manager for a construction company. But he became too old and too pained to continue such labor. Looking for a better life, we came to America with only fifty dollars and the hospitality of relatives. Speaking hardly a lick of English, I had to learn the language. For the first month in America, I would reiterate the only two English words I knew: horse and house. The laughing entertained faces of my parents when I'd boast of my new-found language excited. I went to school on the first day in a confused haze, it was hard to speak to my classmates, who spoke with such eloquence and slang. Of course, their English was elementary—literally howbeit, it was over my head. In the Philippines, everyone was best friends …show more content…
No struggle or problem, however, would badger my thirst for knowledge, my yearn for improvement. I never failed to rehearse my English while walking to school, whether it was a phrase I heard the day before, or if it was big words I heard on television. At home I'd watch the news, a fan, point blank in my face, as I wipe off each dribble of sweat—we didn't have an air conditioner. Still, I studied how the reporters would speak in a rhythmic, unbroken professional English that stirred me to yearn for such articulation of the English language. I wanted to speak to others, I wanted a connection, a way to communicate with everyone around me—I felt like an
I remember the first time I came to America; I was 10 years old. Everything was exciting! From getting into an airplane, to viewing magnificent, huge buildings from a bird’s eye view in the plane. It was truly memorable. After staying few days at my mother’s house, my father and I wanted to see what Dallas looks like. But because my mother was working the whole day, it wasn’t convenient for her to show us the area except only on Sundays. Finally, we went out to the nearby mall with my mother. My father and I were astonished after looking at a variety of stores. But after looking at different stores, we were finally tired and hungry, so we went into McDonald’s. Not being familiar with fast food restaurants, we were curious to try American
Amy Tan talks of the English she grew up with. Tan describes an English her mother uses and an English she shares with her husband. Tan sprinkles in the emotional intricacies of a personalized language that is burdened by misconceptions and apprehensively describes this language as “broken,” but expression through the use of a “broken language doesn’t invalidate what is being said, it doesn’t devoid passion, intention or imagination it simply differs from a normality. Envisage expression as ubiquitous. The differences rest in the vessels used to express. Here, I am using the English language, a grandiose entangling of words and a structured system, to indite my thoughts.
Before you begin reading the main narrative of my essay, I want to let you in on some details about my life and myself. I was born in Manhattan, New York and when I was about twenty two days old, I boarded a plane with my parents on a journey across the United States to the city of San Francisco, then to the town of Grass Valley. This is where my grandmother and grandfather resided. They had been telling my parents that the city of Manhattan was no place to raise a child and that we should move to California and live with them. Before making this life changing decision of leaving most of their friends and loved ones in New York to come to California, my parents sent me off to live in India with my uncle. Keep in mind, I was about the age of two when this all happened. The opportunity of leaving me with my uncle gave my parents about a year to think things over and pull themselves together, in efforts to properly raise a child in a country that was so
Simon emphases the significance of knowing, and using proper English, as well as keeping it alive. He proposes ways to sharpen the brain, which will result in a greater sense of discipline and memory. Simon also notes that everything we do is done with words, therefore, English is viewed as an essential to everyday life. The accurate use of rhetorical devices in this article are just one of many examples on how good English can help a person on a day to day basis. Despite Simon’s knowledge of proper English, the remainder of Americans must train themselves so that they may also achieve correct usage of the English
The measure of a person is rarely calculated by the limitations and obstacles that surround the individual, but more so how he or she was able to persevere. Growing up with a mother whose English skills were at a bare minimum, many would consider this to be my Achilles heel in furthering my education. Just as Tan said, “I [too] happen to be rebell...
The first and second year after moving from China to the United States, I was afraid to talk to strangers because my English was not very well. I had to depend on my husband for dealing with my personal business, such as making a doctor’s appointment, calling to the bank, or questioning to DMV officers. Douglass says, “being a slave for life began to bear heavily upon my heart” (62). For myself, being a dependent and helpless adult is a shame. Moreover, I lacked of extra money to go to school to improve my English. Thus, I stayed home all the time to avoid embarrassment of talking to strangers. After a while, I realized that improving English speaking skills are the essential to gain my self-confidence. So, I spent time to read various articles on the internet and watched English dialogues’ videos on YouTube. As a non-English speaking immigrant living in the U.S., I inevitably encountered a series of difficulties to integrate myself into a new
...far from traditional as he couldn’t have any evidence of learning so he wrote with chalk or coal on board fences, brick walls, and pavement. When his mistress would leave Douglas to tend to the house in her absence he would take the discarded notebooks his master Thomas would bring home from school and continue to practice in the empty spaces left behind. Soon he Fredrick was about to write similar to Thomas and after years of tedious effort he finally learned how to write. With little outside help it is a great accomplishment to self-learn the English language. Even though It is my first language, been thought it my whole educational career, and not forbidden to learn I can still find it our language difficult. Although with practice and continue efforts and encouragement from teachers I am finding it easier as time progresses to express myself through literature.
English is an invisible gate. Immigrants are the outsiders. And native speakers are the gatekeepers. Whether the gate is wide open to welcome the broken English speakers depends on their perceptions. Sadly, most of the times, the gate is shut tight, like the case of Tan’s mother as she discusses in her essay, "the mother tongue." People treat her mother with attitudes because of her improper English before they get to know her. Tan sympathizes for her mother as well as other immigrants. Tan, once embarrassed by her mother, now begins her writing journal through a brand-new kaleidoscope. She sees the beauty behind the "broken" English, even though it is different. Tan combines repetition, cause and effect, and exemplification to emphasize her belief that there are more than one proper way (proper English) to communicate with each other. Tan hopes her audience to understand that the power of language- “the way it can evoke an emotion, a visual image, a complex idea, or a simple truth”- purposes to connect societies, cultures, and individuals, rather than to rank our intelligence.
America was not everything the mothers had expected for their daughters. The mothers always wanted to give their daughters the feather to tell of their hardships, but they never could. They wanted to wait until the day that they could speak perfect American English. However, they never learned to speak their language, which prevented them from communicating with their daughters. All the mothers in The Joy Luck Club had so much hope for their daughters in America, but instead their lives ended up mirroring their mother’s life in China. All the relationships had many hardships because of miscommunication from their different cultures. As they grew older the children realized that their ...
My ancestors moved from Canada to America, they started living in the northern areas and worked very hard to earn food. When I was small the life was very good, all the kids of the community used to play and enjoy the time, but as I started growing up I realized that life is not just about playing around. Most of the people in my community do not know the actual meaning of life and they have spent their whole life inside a specific area and with limited knowledge. I started to find opportunities to study and learn more things that no one knows. In my quest for knowledge and curiosity to know the unknown I learned many things.
Growing up in England by the Peak District my Dad would often take us on short walks through the heather to look at the rolling hills; I fondly remember falling into the heather on an autumn day or seeing mounds of snow over the embankments on the sides of the roads. My Mum lived across from a wooded area that sprawled for miles, it started as a slope leading to trees and the small stream that I would walk along in my Wellies, during the winter my brother and I would trek out there for hours of sledding and fun to return to hot chocolate made for us. Since moving to America, I have witnessed nature but never to the raw extent that I did as a child. This past summer I found myself backpacking, the type where you put a third of your body weight
What if you met the love of your life today? You should smile, because you’ve never been loved so much in your life. But what if they back stabbed you…
I’ve lived in Palestine the first eleven years of my life. I stayed there and went to school
Learning a new language isn’t always easy. It has it’s up and down moments but once I learned that new language I felt accomplished and a lot of new opportunities open for me. My point is that learning English for me wasn’t easy, but once I learned English, I was able to help out my parents more and a bunch of new doors opened for me. You can say by knowing English I had a little more power now at home because they depended a lot on me now but it also felt great just to help them out with their English.
It was about two years ago when I arrived in United States of America, and I still remember the day when I left my native country, Honduras. As I recall, one day previous to my departure, I visited my relatives who live in San Pedro Sula. They were all very happy for me to see me except my grandmother Isabel. She looked sad; even though she tried to smile at all times when I was talking to her, I knew that deep inside of her, her heart was broken because of my departure the next morning. I remember that I even told her, “Grandma, do not worry about me, I’ll be fine. I promise that I will write you letters and send you pictures as much as possible.” Here reply was, “I know sweetie I know you will.” Suddenly after she said that I started to cry. For som...