Vietnamese Literacy Test

Excelling in an area of literacy gives us the ability to comprehend or execute a task effectively and devotedly. Even those who start with nothing are capable of earning life time opportunities in order to better themselves. Despite coming from a Vietnamese family, I was unable to speak, read or write in my own native language. The devastation and shame I went through put me over my head, rendering me saddened since I was unable to even speak to my parents. If I was unable to speak to my parents now, how could I get along with them in the future? However, after enrolling in four years of Vietnamese classes in high school, I learned how to communicate and interact with others, making me literate in another field of language. From this experience,

I have also learned about self discipline and philosophical views from my teacher, who has helped me project my culture into the real world. Although I have had major setbacks throughout my high school career, I have taken those mistakes and improved myself to become more sophisticated and refined in that literacy.
Growing up as a child, I was unable to effectively communicate with my parents, as they were native Vietnamese speakers and I was an Americanized child. I was unable to tell my parents what I had wanted a majority of the time because I did not know the words for simple objects, such as a stapler. Instead, I often pointed at objects or said phrases in English, hoping that they would understand. It was the language barrier that drove me to wanting to talk to my parents and take Vietnamese classes in high school. When the time came, I quickly enrolled in a class, despite having little to no experience when it came to speaking, reading, and writing. Walking in on the first day as a Freshman in high school, I was nervous as the teacher had said something in Vietnamese, but I was unable to comprehend her statement. Looking around, the room was filled with maple brown desks and gray plastic seats, a typical classroom setting. The walls were the color of cream and were decorated with colorful and informational posters with Vietnamese proverbs, or life lessons. For example, one of the posters said, “Gần mực thì đen, gần đèn thì sáng”. This roughly translates to, “If you are near ink, you will get black, but if you are near light, then you will be bright”, meaning that one's company can affect another individual. Inside my head while taking a seat in the middle row, I felt a strong connection with this proverb as it was applied commonly around society. I have not learned anything at all in the classroom, yet I was already introduced to a poster that required inductive reasoning in order to understand. Feeling overwhelmed by the first few seconds of class, the teacher had told us to memorize the alphabet, another obstacle I had to overcome. In the Vietnamese alphabet, vowels have diacritical marks and digraphs, in order to indicate tones and additional sounds respectively. The consonant “D” also as a digraph, “Đ”, giving it another sound. To make things even more complicated, there were consonant clusters as well, in order to construct more words. In total, the Vietnamese alphabet has 29 letters and roughly 10 consonant clusters. This became rather difficult as I already had the English alphabet drilled into my mind. Feeling pressured to do well in classes, I felt obligated to work hard in order to achieve my goal of being able to talk to my parents. As the year went by, I had learned a variety of phrases and vocabulary in every day speech and I was able to hold a casual conversation with my parents. “How is your day?” or “Can I get something to eat?”, I would ask. However, I wanted to learn more about my language and culture, so I decided to continue taking classes.
Throughout my high school career, I advanced from Vietnamese 1 to Vietnamese 4 Honors, which was considered to be difficult as the material became more in depth about Vietnamese culture and history. As I progressed, the material from the first class was completely different from the upper levels. The transition between Vietnamese 1 and Vietnamese 2 was vastly different; it was considered difficult and challenging to those who were not native speakers. My teacher, Miss Quynh, although short in stature, was a young intelligent woman who was capable of pin pointing her student's strengths and weaknesses. She had a way of teaching that taught me how to balance my time and study habits as one simple mistake on an accent mark was capable of completely changing a word's meaning and pronunciation. During those four years, I encountered countless struggles and eventually felt devastated after believing I was unable to read and write as fluently as the other transfer students. They were able to read flawlessly, while I struggled upon a few words as I was unfamiliar with them. I would always confuse the English alphabet and the Vietnamese alphabet as English was my first official language. I regressed back into my shameful state as I believed even a Vietnamese American, like me should be able to speak, read, and write in Vietnamese fluently, since I grew up around a Vietnamese community. Fortunately, after noticing my struggles, Miss Quynh told the entire class, “If you are struggling in a subject, whether it is a language class or an elective class, you should always come for help. Even though, it is tough to ask questions in class, it is something to keep in mind because in the future, stating that you do not know answer to a question, is unacceptable.” Taking those words into consideration, I stayed back during class time in order to improve my reading and writing skills, as I struggled equally on both. Eventually, I improved drastically as I stayed back constantly every single day. I kept up with my school work and often wrote out tedious essays on a blank sheet of line paper after school. During my senior year in high school, I was finally prepared to overcome even the hardest of challenges, or so I thought.
After deciding to enroll in four years of Vietnamese, I made another goal to take the literacy test to prove that I was able to speak two languages.

In order to demonstrate proficiency in two languages, however, I had to take a test to prove that I was literate. The biliteracy test consisted of four sections, testing my abilities for four straight hours. Each section lasted an hour long, which made me believe that time was crucial and should be valued. Sadly, I felt unprepared for the test and thought that I was unable to earn a high mark on it. The test included a listening portion, meaning that I had to listen to a recorded audiobook in order to answer the following questions. The material was all in Vietnamese and had no English translations at all. I had depended on those translations in order to write my essays and speeches. Whenever I did not know a word, I always had to look it up in a dictionary, one that had English to Vietnamese translations and vice versa. Instead of dropping the class and wanting more words of encouragement, my teacher gave another lecture telling the entire class, “Even if you do not think you would pass the test, make the effort to try and pass. You never know as long as you try.” A few months later, I took the test and passed, earning me the seal of biliteracy, which was certified by the state itself. I had accomplished two goals within four years, mainly because I had made the effort and choice to continue my studies in Vietnamese. My

setbacks and challenges had pushed me back and made me want to give up, but with the help and support from friends and family, I got to where I am today.
Even though, I started with no knowledge at all in the beginning, I was able to become literate in another language, other than English.

I had always wanted to interact with others in another language, especially since I was unable to hold a decent conversation with my parents when I was younger. This motivated me into learning Vietnamese, even though I had little experience prior to taking classes. I spoke a few words, but other than that, my first language, English, was the only language I knew. I had learned from my struggles as I wanted to give up and tell my teacher that I was not capable of learning another language. Overall, nothing in life is easy and I learned to work hard in order to achieve my goals. Starting from scratch has given me a wide spread of experiences, making me proud that I was able to accomplish my goal. During those four years, I had learned various ways of introducing my own culture to others and especially my parents, whom I have impressed with my Vietnamese. My parents, noticing my drastic improvement, shocked them and made them very proud since I was able to surpass my own mother's vocabulary set. I was able to speak, read, and write better than her, which made me very glad that I was able to communicate with other adults fluently. Now, I am able to read, write, and speak in Vietnamese proficiently and I can finally talk to my parents, after years of being blocked by the language

barrier.