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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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the people here sounded very different from the textbook English I had learned. Welcome to the South! The first few months were antagonizing, as most of my attempts at conversations ended in confusion. When someone opened their mouth to say something—be it teacher or classmate—I could only decipher a fraction of what was said. The rest remained gibberish. As time went on, I began avoiding conversations to prevent seeming odd or embarrassing myself, and instead I tried my best to stay unnoticed. By the time the first quarter was over, I still sat by myself at lunch. One day, as we were heading back to class, a kid turned to me and mumbled "I'm hungry." I thought he was crazy (given that we had just finished eating), looked at him dumbfounded, but then started laughing. The two words he had uttered were simplistic in nature—easy enough for me to understand—and yet they gave me an insight into exactly what this person was like. His name was Dominic, and he became my first friend in the US. Dominic taught me a lot about the English language—vocabulary, grammar, and even some slang.
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
fluent. I finished my 8th grade year with A/B honor roll, and I was proud of it. Not understanding my teachers for a while had set me behind in my academics, but I recovered from it as time went on. I was accepted into my first choice high school, the STEM Early College at NC A&T, and since then have been studying complex topics related to physics and engineering. The words that once stumped me, I now use freely and confidently. Although I have come a long way, both academically and socially, I still proudly label myself as the "Foreign Kid" on social media sites, video games, and of course, college applications. I have learned to embrace my heritage and differences fully, and thanks to Dominic, I am no longer afraid of sticking out.
Language is a skill that, if used properly, can open up a variety of opportunities in life. Throughout the readings of “Homemade Education” by Malcolm X and “Living with Dyslexia” by Gareth Cook, we see many difficulties and challenges that people overcome when they are put in the face of language. Like many things, there are many different aspects that shape the way we understand the art of language. Throughout culture, perspective, and language we see all the components that make language so powerful. It is made very clear, that language has the power to promote the shaping of one’s identity.
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
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...
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
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.
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
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
The first time Kingston had to speak English in kindergarten was the moment silence infiltrated her world. Simple dialogue such as “hello” or asking for directions was hell for her because people usually couldn’t hear her the first time she asked, and her voice became weaker every time she tried to repeat the question (422). No matter what, speaking English just shattered her self-esteem.
From my experience, bilingual education was a disadvantage during my childhood. At the age of twelve, I was introduced into a bilingual classroom for the first time. The crowded classroom was a combination of seventh and eighth grade Spanish-speaking students, who ranged from the ages of twelve to fifteen. The idea of bilingual education was to help students who weren’t fluent in the English language. The main focus of bilingual education was to teach English and, at the same time, teach a very basic knowledge of the core curriculum subjects: Mathematics, Social Sciences, and Natural Sciences. Unfortunately, bilingual education had academic, psychological, and social disadvantages for me.
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.
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
It was a beautiful, sunny day in South Florida. I was six years old, playing by the pool with my new puppy. I loved swimming in the pool almost every day after school. I also enjoyed going out on our boat after school or crossing the street and going to the beach. My father came home one evening with some interesting news. Now, I do not remember exactly how I felt about the news at that time, but it seemed like I did not mind that much. He had announced that we were going to move back to my birth country, Belgium. I had been living in Florida for five years and it was basically all I had known so I did not know what to expect. I had to live with my mom at first, and then my sister would join us after she graduated high school and my father finished settling things. I remember most of my earlier childhood by watching some old videos of me playing by the pool and dancing in the living room. It seemed like life could not get any better. However, I was excited and impatient to experience a new lifestyle. I realized that I could start a whole new life, make new friends and learn a new language. Belgium was not as sunny as South Florida but it has much better food and family oriented activities. Geographic mobility can have many positive effects on younger children, such as learning new languages, being more outgoing, and more family oriented; therefore, parents should not be afraid to move around and experience new cultures.
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.
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.
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