Because Ethiopia has more than eighty different languages, I was lucky enough the majority of my life to speak more than three languages: Gurage, Tigrinya and Amharic, but not English. Growing up I did not have the opportunity to learn English until fifth grade because public school did not teach English, unlike private school, which did. Private schools were only for privileged students. Until the age of eleven I did not know anything about English. During the summer of fourth grade I went to the U.S. for the first time and stayed there for a few months; in my time in the States, I saw my mom get abused verbally and physically due to not knowing the English language. I then realized how valuable English is. In fifth grade I saw the English alphabet for the first …show more content…
I remember just looking at the English book and contemplating when the time would arrive that I would get to know what these words meant. After several months of reading I began to understand the language more, but was still far from having a solid understanding of the language. Out of all of my classes, English was the most difficult one, even though I was learning and actively engaged. The learning process was challenging because I did not have the chance to talk to people outside of class, so what I was taught in class did not sink in. I tried to have conversation outside of school with my classmates. It was to no avail as they were also new to the language and did not show that much of an interest in it. As a result I was subjected to insults such as “You want to be white boy.” I never gave up and did my best to excel in my English. As time went by, my grades in English class finally started showing
Most people who grow up with a foreign language spoken in there house grow up with an advantage in society. This advantage can only occur once the individual learning that foreign language also learns the dominant language spoken in that country. Once both of these languages are learned and mastered, the individual has now placed them se...
Language can be a difficult task to foreigners who have already achieved a first language. In “Mother Tongue” by Amy Tan, “Mute in an English-only World” by Chang-Rae Lee, and “Leave your Name at the Border” by Manuel Munoz, the authors explain how people are judged by their “broken language”, and their lack of understanding the English language. Tan, Lee, and Munoz admits that by not being fluent in English, it was hard to adjust to the new world that they lived in. The authors explained that throughout their life-time, English was very important to them; they also felt embarrassed in front of others who could not understand what they were saying. By having an accent in America can be a burden on individuals whether it is due to a feeling of being unwelcomed or alienated by others.
When I turned eight, I discovered that English was an essential tool in my life, and no longer resent from it. As a Hmong child to three siblings and a single mother, it is tradition for a male descent such as me to firmly hold onto my roots. After my parents were divorced, my family lived in poverty. My mother spoke in broken English, and she had trouble finding ways to meet our needs. We were very limited to education. My siblings
“I think my mother’s English almost had an effect on 5) limiting my possibilities in life as well. Sociologists and linguists probably will tell you that a person’s developing language skills are more influenced by peers. But I do think that the language spoken in the fa...
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...
Many people have gone through what I went through, which is not knowing English when arriving to the United States. Tan wrote a story about her mother called “Mother Tongue” in which she describes her experience with her mother and
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
For as long as I can remember learning how to read and write was a real challenge for me. When I first arrived in the United States I was enrolled at the nearby elementary school. Being from another country I was scared and embarrassed because I was different then the other children in my class. Talking and communicating with others was something that wasn't in the interest of what I wanted to do. I sat far away from others depriving myself of what they were doing or learning. Coming from Mexico and going to a school where no other children would speak the same language that I would or even play the way I did made me believe that I was some sort of thing that didn't belong. All these contributed to a low esteemed child that was unable to communicate. The world I was in suddenly became a place that I didn't know. To the kids and others in my class I was an illiterate person.
“Mother Tongue” is an essay that show the power of language and how Amy Tan uses the many forms of English and the different ways in which the language she knew impacted her life. I feel connected to Tan’s essay because I also come from a multilingual home. I have smart emigrant parents who are educated, but even though they are educated they still need my help with communicating with people occasionally. I believe the most important idea in Tan’s “Mother Tongue” is the limitation that an imperfect English can cause in a society and the richness that such English can bring to
My story began when I moved to America and got enrolled at a school called Southwestern Elementary. I didn’t speak English at the time so it was difficult to understand what my classmates and teachers were trying to say. I remember it like it was yesterday. I could hear, but I couldn’t really listen and for some time I thought I was deaf. My parents would give me extra work after school to improve my reading skills and I had to take an ESOL class in school, so I would get pulled out of my regular classes once in awhile to go with my ESOL teacher. We would watch videos on grammar and practice reading common English phrases like “Good morning.” or “How are you?”. After practicing and putting in the extra effort to catch up with the rest of my
When I first started school, I really didn’t know any English. It was hard because none of the kids knew what I was saying, and sometimes the teachers didn’t understand what I was saying. I was put in those ELL classes where they teach you English. The room they would take us to was full of pictures to teach us English, and they would make us sit on a red carpet and teach us how to read and write. When I would go back to regular class, I would have to try harder than the other students. I would have to study a little more and work a little harder with reading and writing if I wanted to be in the same level as the other kids in my class. when I got to third grade I took a test for my English and past it I didn’t have to go to does ELL classes anymore because I passed the test, and it felt great knowing that I wouldn’t have to take those classes no more.
Live in America without knowing English, life is still deadlocked. On the first day of school, I realized how important it is to know English. It was hard to survive in America if I was having trouble speaking English at the age I supposed go to school. Feeling the contempt of others because of my lack of English, I did not hesitate to make myself better so people hardly look at me with eyes of despise. Here, at middle school, I met Mr. Davidson. He was the kindest teacher that I have ever know. He teaches English Language Development class, I felt lucky that I was in his
According to Hudson, a variety is ‘a set of linguistic items with similar social distribution’ . Since the term dialect has acquired a negative connotation throughout the years, academics have started to use the term variety, which is considered more neutral, instead.
Knowing nothing about the language and then suddenly having to learn how to read and write gave me big obstacles to overcome. During, elementary school through 6th grade I went to a bilingual school. We had a month of all English courses and then one month of all Spanish courses rotating along the school year. During, this time I learned how to read and write in English. Also how to use past, present, and future tenses while incorporating them into sentences. Not only was this difficult for me, but also having to read in front of classmates was embarrassing. Every time I would have to read out loud I could feel my face get hot and red. However, not only did I have to learn a new language and have an accent with it, but I also had to face the criticism from others who knew the language and had no struggle with
Language has pioneered many interracial relationships and historical milestones. Language is a necessity for basic communication and cultural diversity. Being multilingual is a skill proven influential to a successful future. Due to rapid globalization, countries all over the world are stressing the importance of learning a second, or even third, language. With the exception of time and lack of resources, adults have very few widely applicable disadvantages to learning multiple languages. However, language learning as a child presents more complications. Some of those include not having enough funding at the elementary school level to introduce a program for secondary language, academic overload for the youth, stress for both the parent and student parties, and the mixing of languages. Not all of these complications are true in any or all situations, however, and the absence of them provides multitudes of opportunity for future career and academic success. Ultimately, it is the responsibility of the parents or the education legislation to decide whether they encourage the learning of a secondary language at the young age necessary for retention. “The general consensus is that it takes between five to seven years for an individual to achieve advanced fluency,” therefore the younger a child begins to learn, the more likely they are to benefit to the maximum potential (Robertson). Keeping the language learning in high school or beginning the process earlier is a greatly controversial discussion that is important to address because of the topic’s already lengthy suspension.