38 percent of all Hispanic parents only speak Spanish according to Pew Research center. In many cases this is why parents teach their children to speak Spanish for their first language. My parents learned English at a young age because they moved to the united states and were expected to know it. That was not the case for me. Growing up my family expected me to know English well. We lived in a small town called Fort Hancock, Texas with my grandparents. Everyone just spoke Spanish in that town and for that reason, I learned to just speak Spanish first. When we moved to Oklahoma City I was five. I had to transition to English, which was hard. I got made fun of, but luckily improved later on my literacy journey. Transitioning from Spanish to English was the most difficult thing ever. At age six I didn't know much. I thought Spanish was the only language since that's all I learned and heard. Being told by your parents you have to learn English before school was confusing. I didn't know why I had to learn a new language. I thought it was foolish because I already knew one. My parents first began to teach me by writing down sentences, and having me read to them what it said. I was able to understand it where, I knew what people were saying. It was difficult …show more content…
Especially with the help of my professor Ms. Piper. I was still having trouble on material on writing, but she helped me by teaching us the writing process, how to revise our drafts, and how to use outlines to help us. She has also taught us ways of breaking down paragraphs in piece of writing to help us understand what we are reading about. I feel with this new approach it opened my eyes on a way to help me excel on my writing, and reading. I am an excellent writer and reader than I was before. I am not the greatest, but I know if I just keep practicing on what I learned, and also learning I will become
I came from Mexico when I was 4 years, and like many of us I did not know English. Little by little I became fluent until I now can dominate English. Many people come to this country for a better life, but once in this country, we notice how essential English is for our everyday life. Being bilingual can be very beneficial for anyone in this country. I may be fluent in English, but I still prefer speaking in the Spanish language. This may be because at home that is all we speak. Both my parents do not really know English much. It’s better for me to talk to them in Spanish. I can try to talk to them in English but there may be a few words they won’t
When it was my time to go to the U.S., I was eight years old, fluently only in Spanish with a Dominican accent. You see there is Spanish but then there's Dominican Spanish, and from there
disadvantaged child, I considered Spanish to be a private language. What I needed to learn in
It was difficult for me because I didn’t always understand certain words or phrases in English that I knew in Spanish, and sometimes I felt left out. In the middle of the year, my family moved me to a school with a Bilingual Program. Again, I had a hard time because now I had to learn all of the letter names and sounds in Spanish that I had been learning in English.
In the past three months I feel like I have accomplished a great deal. As the semester comes to an end I find myself reflecting not only how I have survived the first semester but also what I have learned. The most important thing I have learned so far is how to become a better writer. I did not think it could really happen to me. I did not think I could handle all the work. I did not think I could actually become a better writer. Some how after all the hours of writing, and putting effort into the papers that I wrote this semester, I became a better writer. I did this because I concentrated on two very important areas, with the attitude of, if I could just become better in those then I would become a better writer. With help from an awesome teacher and a reliable tutor I have become a better writer by improving my skills in the areas of procrastination and content.
My parents did everything they knew to help my sister and I learn and respect our Mexican culture. Born into American culture but raised by Hispanic parents, often was difficult for me. Since I was little I had to manage and balance two very different cultures at the same time. There were many times while growing up that I encountered complex situations in regards to language, whether to speak Spanish or English and when it was appropriate. I felt a lot of pressure having to act as an interpreter for my parents when we were out in public. At home I was told to speak Spanish so I would not forget, but at school I was taught to only speak English with my teachers and friends. However, when we would go visit family in Mexico, I was expected to only speak in Spanish, since speaking in English in front of family members who only spoke Spanish was seen as disrespectful. So learning two languages has been very beneficial to my life and for my family. By
In conclusion, learning English was a challenge when it was first introduced to me, but now I have overcome that challenge. I am able to defend myself in the outside public world of English with no shame at all. I now understand how fortunate I am to know another language different from my own. For me, it is important to still have my first language because it is a way to retain the Mexican culture. It is just the way I was raised to believe.
Throughout this semester I have learned many ways of writing through two main essays literacy narrative and comparison and contrast. These two essays have taught me how to correctly fix my comma splices, thesis statements, and capitalization. I have engaged in numerous learning material during this summer class. Many times when I thought it would be hard to work on those three developments I never gave up. I gain more positive feedback from my teacher because he pointed out most of my mistakes I made on both literacy narrative and comparison and contrast essays to help me understand what is it that I need to work on. My development as a writer became stronger.
Growing up in a Hispanic household the first language that you learn should be Spanish, right? This was not the case for me, having two older sisters that were already in school learning English and always using English around me and my family. English was my first language, this helped with my early youth in picking up English at school faster. Learning English first was detrimental to learning Spanish, I learned informal Spanish called Spanglish. I would mix up English words with Spanish words and made it harder for me to construct vocal sentences. Being a Hispanic is difficult if you know limited Spanish, it was important for me to dedicate time to learn Spanish.
Writing Lessons by Stanley Fish was a reading I found myself dreading to start. Before actually beginning, my thoughts were that this reading would be extremely mundane. I then realized that it needed to be done and that the sooner I begun, the sooner I would finish. After finishing the first paragraph, I then found myself grasped and fully engaged in the reading - not just because I was interested in the content and story but because I actually was able to sit back and learn from it. Writing is something I feel comfortable and capable of doing, but this reading gave me a better grip on the actual structure of sentences.
My mother thought it would be a great decision if I were to be learning a new language while learning English at the same time. With my brother she chose another path after seeing my results she decided to let him learn English first and then teach him Spanish. My history with books in school started in Kindergarten
There are 318.86 million people living in the Unites States. According to BBC news, out of the 318.86 million 54 million are Hispanics. There are 56 million Hispanics of which Mexican- Americans are the biggest group. What does it mean to be Mexican- American in modern day America? Everyone views Mexican-Americans differently. As well, everyone might describe this differently. I will give some examples. A 46 year old whose father was German and mother was Mexican. A 20- year old medical student, whose parents are Mexican Immigrants, but since he was born here he is an American citizen. An 18-year old girl who was brought here at the age of 2 but has no papers. A 1st generation cousin and a 2nd generation cousin fighting to see who is more
Spanish and English may both be widely spoken languages, however English is becoming more and more prevalent as a second language. For this project I interviewed an acquaintance who speaks Spanish as a first language and English as a second language. Spanish and English are similar in aspects such as grammar (in that they are both SVO—subject, verb, object—languages) and vocabulary (since both were influenced by Latin) (Shoebottom n.d.), however they are also quite different, especially in their phonology. These differences are what made learning it as a second language a little more difficult for this interviewee.
When I was a child my dad, and my grandparents taught me how to speak Spanish before I could learn how to speak English. As I continued to learn more and more words, Spanish became my first language, I spoke it fluently, and English came second. When I was ready to start Pre-K, my dad taught me to write in English other than in Spanish. It was hard to learn how to write my letters without knowing them in English and only in Spanish. I would confuse my E’s
My family emigrated from the Dominican Republic when I was two years old. At the time, none of us spoke any fluent English. Due to their limited education,