Descriptive Speech

I am your pilot this morning, and I will be taking you to Newark, New Jersey. The flight will be about three hours. Sit back, relax and have a good flight. I looked to my left to see my parents on their phones, not paying attention to any of their surroundings. There was a long line of people in the aisle waiting to take their seats, each person pushing large suitcases. In the row across for us, Jack was sitting in the row seat listening to music. Since there was four of us Jack had to sit by himself with two other strangers but he didn’t mind. The engines suddenly started to roar as I started to get pushed gently back into my seat. The front of the plane started to rise from the ground and as soon as I noticed we were up in the air. I took a deep breathe as I took my backpack out under the seat. I grabbed my new book “Looking for Alaska” and began to read. One of my friends gave it to me as a going away gift because she knew I loved to read. After a while, my mind slowly started to drift off onto a whole different planet. I was still in shock that I just left all my friends and I was moving to New Jersey. The whole situation was not processing through my head and I thought that we were just going on vacation to New Jersey, and we were not actually about to live there. Even thinking about having to make new friends and joining a new soccer team sent chills down my body. I am always shy around new people and now I have to break out of my

Purpose: After listening to my speech, the audience will be more educated on Texas’s roadside attractions, as well as relate to the sites I will discuss in my presentation.

1. This informative speech on “The Cause of Homelessness “is very Inform able and worth listening to, because in today’s economy it could be you or me. Some seem to think homelessness is choice. I find this speech relevant to the world I live in today, due to the high unemployment rate, declining job market, and the economic hardships that families are enduring. This topic is not a broad one, but yet can be spoke of in depth due to the fact I see many homeless people but never thought it would be me until I seen a family friend who has lost everything, this is what made me more aware that it is not just a choice and any day it could be me. So when you see

It wasn’t all bad, from my childish perspective I thought, “Hey, they talk just like on TV, I can do this,” and with making a few friends, I came to use and practice the language as if I had been born into it. However, the one that struggled was my sister. Again, none of the schools offered any bilingual courses, and she was five grade schools ahead of me. At first she seemed to be doing okay, but at some point she would come home crying of frustration. In Mexico the grades are set from 1- 10, a 10 being the equivalent of an A, which she always used to get. However, her first year in a completely different country with a different language, she struggled, mad that the only thing impeding her from being successful was the language

Being a Mexican-American, who was raised in the small town of Encarnación de Díaz – located at Los Altos de Jalisco, MX, – and then moved at the age of seventeen to Corpus Christi, TX, was not a smooth transition. The most difficult things I have encountered in my life must have been speaking a new language and adapting to a new type of living. I was fortunate enough to have amazing teachers who taught me to read, write and speak in English back in Mexico, but I was still not confident enough to speak the language when I arrived here. Although, many have told me that my English doesn’t sound as if I just moved here five years ago, I still believe I have so much more to learn.

She began to drive out of the parking lot as I turned on the radio. Nana was Meme’s oldest daughter and, long ago, lost much of her sanity due to drug abuse and now spends much of her time sleeping or talking to things that aren’t there. She is also my grandmother and my Meme now must care for her. This wouldn’t even be the worst of her troubles, however. Her husband had been abusive and beat her frequently; she still suffered epileptic attacks to this day.

Learning a new language at my age was a thug, people make fun of you in school if you don’t understand or don’t know how to say something. Only a few people help you. When I lived in Mexico I was always one of the best students and most of the times I was on the honor roll. Without knowing English in this country, I couldn’t the same. I start school here in Houston the 9th grade and my grades were very low, I couldn’t believe that my grades went from 100 to less than 50. Also, I couldn’t do my work, homework and tests because I didn’t understand or I didn't know how to ask. All this situation made me feel so incapable and frustrated. I started to use that frustration and courage to lose my fear and sorrow to ask my teachers and classmates for help. I decided to talk more English than Spanish with people in the stores, malls, and school. During the weekend with my cousins I remember that I used to talk to them in Spanish and they talked to me English so I could learn more vocabulary and how to pronounce the words. Listen to music in English helped me a lot familiarizing my ear to the language too, and using my free time to translate words from Spanish to English to learn more, so I could do better in

Six months ago, corporate daycare facilities were cleaning out my bank account. I was losing the ability to pay for gas, rent and my utilities because all my money was going towards my son’s weekly daycare tuition. My parents could help me scrap on by here and there but that wasn’t there responsibly. It was then that my mother suggested that I should look into putting my son into a local licensed in home daycare facility opposed to a major corporate daycare facility. I was a little skeptical at first, but I

Looking back at my early childhood filled with many events and memories, I remember one in particular when my parents taught me my native language, Spanish, by reading books to me any chance they had. Beginning at the age of 8, I would bring home a variety of books from school eager to read them and learn new words. I spent a great amount of time reading that I eventually decided to move into short novels. This helped me improve so much that I never had trouble speaking Spanish. I vividly remember in my small class of 15 students, me speaking Spanish more fluently than any of my other classmates. Proud would be an understatement. This soon changed when I began second grade in the fall of 2006 with Ms. Magaña.

When I entered school my parents refused to place me in the Spanish-speaking classroom. They feared the discrimination I would face as an immigrant segregated from Americans, a complexity that they combated everyday in their lives. No matter what my parents tried, they could not shake the feeling that they did not belong here. So much so that I was forced into an English speaking class with barely any knowledge of the language. Although I was scared at first, I was an obedient student and thus able to blend in like any American child, just like my parents wanted. After a couple years, I even began to give my father basic lessons in the English language during dinnertime, explaining to him the difference between hot dog and perro caliente. Somewhere between my effortful pronunciation and accidental commentary in English, I lost him. He exclaimed that he didn't need to know English, that I knew it well enough for the entire family. As the reality hit me, my

When the space shuttle Challenger took off on January 28, 1986, an internal rocket ship part called an O-ring malfunctioned because it became too cold in the winter air. As a result, super-hot gases passed the O-ring and burned a hole in the side of the space shuttle's external tank. Once the outer container became compromised, the solid rocket boosters caused a massive explosion. All seven crew members died. Another tragedy occurred on April 16, 2007, at the campus of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg, Virginia. Seung-Hui Cho a senior at Virginia Tech committed two separate gun attacks approximately two hours apart. Tragically, Cho shot students in an academic building and multiple residence halls before committing suicide. In the deadliest shooting rampage at the time in American history: 17 students wounded and another 32 people killed. Ronald Reagan, the president of the United States at the time of the Challenger tragedy, spoke to the United States via his “Space Shuttle Tragedy Address” on the same day that the space shuttle exploded; similarly, Nikki Giovanni concluded the memorial ceremony at Virginia Tech after a murder tragedy in her “We are Virginia Tech” address. Ronald Reagan and Nikki Giovanni deliver similar speeches. They are successful examples of how to promote healing after a devastating tragedy and should be used as models for future tragedy speeches; however, Ronald Reagan’s superior ability to talk beyond

I no longer had my dad by my side to translate for me. Nevertheless, I still maintained my optimism. Our house was nearby the school, so me and my mom would walk together. When we arrived there was a giant playground with trees and rocks and a mob kids were running around. The teachers supervising told my mom that she had to leave, so she did. Suddenly all the excitement that I had felt had turned into sadness and loneliness. It had hit that I couldn’t communicate with anybody. So I stood in the corner by the teachers and watch the kids run around. When it was time to go inside I lined up with all the kids and went inside. For some reason, I ended up in Mrs.Pettingen first grade class. She gave us a piece of paper and some crayons, so I drew a picture. I ended up drawing El Faro de Chipiona and when she saw what I was drawing she started talking to me. I had no idea what to say, so I said the only thing I knew “hello.” From there on I just started speaking Spanish, trying to tell her that I didn’t understand English. Thankfully, there was a woman in the room that knew Spanish and started translating for us. The next day it was the same thing except I went with another teacher. This teacher had brown, short hair with round glasses and would take me to the stage. Every day we would go on the stage and learn some English. Throughout the year, I would bounce from teacher to teacher each one with the task of teaching me English. I

I didn’t hear a word from my mom since i locked myself in my room. And my dad was not talking to me anymore. “The coast must be clear then”, I thought to myself. But even though I had my large large dresser and my mirror against the war, he could still somehow break the door down from the adrenaline of his rage. I decided to leave the house through my window if my dad deciding to force himself in my room. I got out the window but my dad was already waiting for me outside. He must have known I was going to make that decision since he knows me more than anyone. He grabbed me and I resisted so much so he carried me to the car. I got in and there are suitcases in the back of the car already. My mom was already in the car looking at me and laughing because I failed in trying to delay. She told me that while I was in my room, she packed up all the supplies for the trip. And i could not stop thinking to myself how stupid I was being. There was no point in trying to resist at this point since I was already in the car. My dad got in and we drove to the airport. I was still in my pajamas and my parents looked so formal. I got on the plane and my heart was beating so fast and I was so close to passing out when we took off and I realized that flying in a plane wasn't so bad. This is a story that my parents always talk about throughout family reunions and it’s always funny to think back on because I thought I could outsmart my parents and

As a child growing up in my family, the conversations between my grandfather and I consisted of weak attempts at speaking each other’s language. There are some words that momentarily break down the language barrier that kept us apart. However, for the most part, my efforts to speak Spanish were hopeless. Whenever I came to visit him, I exchanged a shaky “sion abuelo” for his thick accented “He-llo,” and ran away before the embarrassment from my inability to understand the language that was spoken frequently

My ears were hot from embarrassment and I slowly sipped my water. Really Sierra the lady was talking to you and all you could do was say uhhhh. Not only was I embarrassed but I was upset that I didn’t know Spanish but my dad did. My dad must have seen my face because he asked me why I was so quiet. “Why haven’t you taught me Spanish” I whispered just in case anyone knew that I couldn’t speak Spanish. “I don’t know, when you were a baby you didn’t want to learn” my father said half laughing. I gave him the death stare until the food came. The waitress spoke to my dad and his girlfriend in Spanish but when she got to me she spoke in English. This got me even more mad. I just ate my food wishing I could speak