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Middle school is the most challenging time of your life.
I make this statement based off of a rather small sample size: myself (my 8th grade science teacher would scold me for this). Nonetheless, middle school was truly difficult. I don't say this because of rigorous courses, or frustratingly strict bathroom rules, but rather because I spoke close to no English for a large part of it.
I grew up in a small town in the western part of Germany. Surrounded by cabbage fields and cow pastures, it wasn't much to look at, but I still felt comfortable and at home living there. I had a typical German childhood —playing soccer instead of football, eating sauerkraut instead of broccoli, and, of course, speaking German instead of English. While I was born in Seattle, I moved to Germany when I was one year old and stayed there for the next 10 years. On August 25th, 2009, my family decided to move back to the US.
We arrived in Greensboro on a Sunday afternoon, checked into a small apartment, and unpacked our suitcases. The next morning, I was thrown into my first day of middle school. Jetlagged, nervous, and with a very limited ability to speak English, I spent most of the day asking people to repeat themselves. While I had taken some English classes in Germany, I found that
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More importantly though, Dominic’s carefree attitude taught me not to be too self-conscious about my language difficulties. Because of him, I began talking to people again and tried my best to tell stories, crack jokes, and ask questions, even when I did not always understand the answers. My English speaking abilities began to flourish as I now considered my vocabulary to be a tool box used to make myself noticed. Soon, I was known as the "Foreign Kid" around school, a title I was oddly proud of. People started recognizing me in the halls, I made new friends, I talked as much as I could, and eventually I became
Do you take your language skills, typically learned in mandatory English classes, for granted? Jimmy Santiago Baca, Gareth Cook, and I certainly do not. Baca writes “Coming into Language,” to share his story of learning to read and write while being incarcerated in prison for drug possession. Whereas Cook, in spite of past experiences of shame and ridicule in school, tells his tale of being dyslexic by writing “Living with Dyslexia.” While I’m not an author I did grow up feeling isolated from people in my own age group and, due to a restless mind, developed insomnia in my early teenage years. Despite these differences, all of us went through hardships of forcing our minds to learn new material, growing up without
In the year 2000, right before the start of my 5th grade year, I moved to the Dominican Republic from the United States. My parents wanted to raise my sisters and me there. I had to start a new life, a new school, and make new friends. Making the transition from the United States to the Dominican Republic really wasn’t difficult because I spoke Spanish at home with my family. In fact, I was a good student, often earning honor roll and getting diplomas for having good grades. I moved back again to the United States in my junior year of high school, because my parents wanted me to go to college in the US. It wasn’t easy; I didn’t know anybody, I had to make new friends again, and I wasn’t familiar with the life over here. I only spoke a little bit of English, because I had spent many years taking classes in Spanish while in the Dominican Republic. To help me pick up the language again, I decided to take regular classes instead of english as a second language because I thought this strategy would help me learn more English and get accustom to the language.
My most life changing experience was when I moved from the sunny skies of North Carolina to The Blizzard, more formally known as Germany in the middle of my second grade year. My Step-Dad was active duty in the military. Of course, he had to drag us with him. He flew out to Germany first so for about three weeks it was just Mom and I. Just about every day Mom would say “Two more weeks till Germany, Tarix”, “One more week till Germany, Tarix” (Rich), which I never took to heart. I was too caught up in deciding what my Barbie was going to wear that day and riding my new tricycle to have time to process her words. Ignorance was bliss until the movers came to our house and packed up all my memories into big brown boxes. The night before
When I first came to this country, I wasn’t thinking about the language, how to learn it, use it, write, how I’m going to speak with people who are next to you and you want to talk to them. My first experience was in Veterans School, it was my first year in school here in United States, and I was in eight grades. The first day of school you were suppose to go with your parent, especially if you were new in the school, like me. What happened was that I didn’t bring my dad whit me, a woman was asking me a lot of questions and I was completely loss, I didn’t have any idea of what she was telling me and I was scare. One funny thing, I started cry because I fell like frustrate, I didn’t know no one from there. Someone seat next to me, and ask me in Spanish what was wrong and I just say in my mind thanks God for send me this person, then I answered her that I didn’t know Engl...
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
My middle school years were incredible. I went to three different schools during my middle school years. I attended McIntyre Middle School, Millbrook Middle School, and Brewbaker Middle School. All three of these schools were amazing and I did great things at each school. I would love to relive my middle school years. I believe middle school could make or break a child. Many children had problems in middle school but me on the other hand went through middle school with a breeze. I never had a problem with any class or subject in middle school. Many of the students adored me at each school I attended. It was never a problem for me to make new friends. If I could go back to middle school I would.
I clearly remember my first day in an American school— a little thirteen-year-old boy, who was shy to speak and tried to avoid any questions. Some of my classmates understood that English was my third language and tried to support and encourage me. However, others
Middle school is very difficult and most of you are probably thinking How am I supposed to survive through the three years known as middle school. In middle school you are given more homework so you need to learn how to manage your time and how to prioritize. Another challenge in middle school is studying for test and quizzes. Last but not least is producing quality work you can’t get away with not doing good work anymore you might have been able to in elementary but not in middle school. If you learn to do all of these things middle school won’t be as hard as it seems.
I was born in a small town, Sicily in Italy. After a few years, my family and I moved to Arizona. It was pretty convenient because my grandma lived there so we could visit here more often. Then we moved to Germany in 2009, practically on the other side of the world. School was chaotic, everybody knew everybody and I knew no one. However, after a couple of months that all changed. Middle
2011, I was 6 at the time and we has recently moved to Germany. Since my dad was in the army, we moved around a lot. Before Germany, we lived in Texas for a while. When we moved, I started skiing with my father. He was a snowboarder, so I started with snowboarding but that wasn’t for me. My dad had a friend, who had a daughter and I was friends with his daughter. We were around the same age and we went to the same elementary school, Landstuhl Elementary School, on the army base. Her name was Keeli but I called her Kiwi, she was around the same height as me, maybe a little shorter, and she had blonde shoulder length hair. During one of our trips, we went to Switzerland, Europe to ski. Keeli and I got a private instructor and we had lessons everyday.
I remember moving to a new school and not knowing the language. Students helped me learn French and it seemed so hard at first. Sometimes, students did not always teach me the nicest things to say, such as profanity, but everything was fun and new. Teachers were very nice and understanding due to the fact that I ...
My parents bought me whatever resources they could afford from after-school bilingual clubs, personal tutors, flashcards, and the most valuable asset they could afford, their own time. I appreciated their time because I knew how they didn’t let the language barrier deter them from speaking to other people. Their accents didn’t connect to myself that they were immigrants, but that I was one of them. I had been working so hard to advance in my educational pursuit while unconsciously realizing that my self-identity would always be found in the way I spoke, and most importantly my own parents. While most kids were out playing and going to the park when school finished I headed straight home to start on my homework and there wasn’t a day that passed that I wasn’t offered help from one of my parents even though most of the time I could just barely understand a little bit better than them. Every passing day was used to strengthen my English language as I my foundation for self-identity was always in the living room eager to help in any form they could. I could have strayed off the “scholarship boy” path by enjoying my youth, but my youth was my self-identity and more importantly it was the two people who had given me life. The need to become acquainted with the English language prompted me to look upon education more seriously than any of the other kids in class. I didn’t want to be helpless and always be looked upon as the silent kid who was always by himself in the corner. When most kids complained about homework I didn’t mind it as I knew homework wasn’t a punishment but a means of changing my helplessness to
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.
The United States Education System is unique in international comparison because of its goal to ensure that every student receives a high-quality education. It tackles a wide range of major issues to guarantee that every child receives the same educational opportunities, but none have been more challenging than the issue of language barriers. In the United States alone, English language learners are considered to be “one of the fastest-growing populations within the educational system” (Elsworth). The government, state education boards, public/private schools, teachers, parents, and students face the difficult obstacles that language barriers have set. To help minimize the effects of language barriers
I am Egyptian; however, I attended elementary, secondary and high school in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia. My family then moved to the United States of America and I became a resident there; I then started to attend college in USA. The first question that comes to any person’s mind when he/she knows that I am a foreigner is “Where did you learn English?” This story began back when I was four years old. First, I was born in Egypt, and then when I was four months old the family moved to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for work. It was my time to start school; I went to a school called Asia School; the name obviously indicates that the school’s population was mostly Asian. It is considered as one of the best schools in Saudi Arabia. This school taught me all the fundamentals of my education and also I got the chance to deal with people from various backgrounds. Then, in 2002 my dad’s employer moved him to another city. So, it was time to move on after I was settled in my life and with my friends. I had to start all over in a new place, attend another school, and deal with people from different backgrounds than I am used to. Then for the third time, my father got relocated to the united states and I had to start and repeat all over again. All of those events in my life allowed me to deal with people from completely different life backgrounds and have education through completely different