Personal Narrative: Bilingual Education

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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 …show more content…

That’s when the atmosphere in the room changed. I could hear my classmates whispering how it’s unfair that I have a dictionary, while they don’t and they started calling me a cheater. There was this one kid, who said the reason I got one was because I was Asian. After that day, it was terrifying walking into the classroom everyday, knowing I would be looked at in a different way. However, I knew I couldn’t let this go on forever, so I studied harder than before. I aced all my tests and completed my assignments with flying colors. Then one day, a teacher I have never seen before called me out of class to discuss something that seemed rather important. She told me I’ve been chosen out of a selective few to participate in the Gifted Program, a class that excels above Honor courses in middle school. In that moment, I didn’t care what others thought of me because I tried my best and that was enough. Now transitioning into high school, I took AP courses and currently an IB Diploma candidate. I gradually embraced my heritage and who I am, from becoming a member of my school’s Vietnamese Student Association to volunteering at the Wilston Vietnamese Senior Citizen Center, where I improve my language skills and expand my knowledge of my culture day by

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