Introduce Yourself Analysis

My entire family was born in Guadalajara, Mexico. After three and a half years of living there my family decided to seek a better future in The United States. My father would go to the United States back and forth to work and earn money to send to us in Mexico. Eventually my mother was able to get a visa and my brother along with my little sister had an alternate way into the United States. We lived in Dallas Texas and Atlanta Georgia before settling in Howard county Maryland in a very small apartment. Luckily we were doing pretty well with my dad being the only one knowing English at the time. My father was working two jobs and I was getting ready to start kindergarten. I was very excited because the education we would have received in Mexico was nothing compared to the education in Howard County. I was excited for what was to come, but there were disadvantages of knowing only Spanish. Being bullied because of my poor English had an impact on me. I was in completely separate classes learning things that were simple compared to the regular course. I was excluded from certain activities, field trips and assemblies. I was clueless at first though as I slowly learned the language I understood things a lot more.

At first, speaking English was a bit difficult because I did not feel confident using it with others. The most advanced students sometimes made fun of my English. The students who spoke my own language made more fun of me than the ones who were fluent in English. The teasing by the students made me feel embarrassed and shy to speak the English language, giving me a fear of being made fun of or looked at differently. Practicing the English language with my own siblings and playing with the neighborhood kids who already managed the language gave me more confidence to speak English. Taking Spanish courses in school was also an advantage, which helped me to get better at my native language and kept me from losing it.

It was tough trying to handle parents who were always drunk, always violent, always complaining that they could not afford to buy my siblings and me food when every night they would come home with two new bottles. Every night had the same ending. My mom crying for help as my father showed the true demons that hide beneath his aging flesh. I wished many times to die, cried myself to sleep almost every night, and tried my best to keep a face that did not reveal how I truly felt.

Becoming a second English language learner is something I along with many Hispanics had to face. Learning was something that I was always interested in, but in order to start it was necessary to overcome my ignorance and learn English. My first memories of learning English include watching morning cartoons. It almost became instinct for me to mimic the words that I heard. To be honest Dora the Explorer, Barney, and the Sesame Street bunch were my first teachers. It is funny sometimes to ask my mom about my first day of school. Even in the face of an unknown and my lack of English I still ran with excitement into the classroom. My mom stood at the doorway with tears in her eyes as I when up to some students without ever turning back to look

As a native Spanish speaker and coming to this country five years ago from Colombia, It never crossed my mind that I would start learning another language. Even at home my mother would

As I began school in pre-school I was taught that reading, writing and language would forever be a useful skill. Being a Spanish speaker I was lucky enough to live in small community where the majority of my class where all Spanish speaking. I remember my preschool teacher sending my home with small Spanish books to read with our parents that was our homework for the day. After that we would test on how fluent we read both the English and the Spanish version.

When my parents got divorced I was only eight. It was really hard to take in because my sister was only five and she didn’t understand it like I did. All she knew was that mom and dad got in arguments all the time. She would come to me crying and I had to comfort her, my mom and dad couldn’t because of all the frustration they had. Also, with me being so young it was hard for to decide who I wanted to live with.

Asking someone to describe themselves isn’t always the easiest task, nor is it necessarily the most accurate one. Like anyone, my personality and my demeanor changes, even slightly, depending on who I’m around and my comfort level. Something that is dying off with each generation, seems to be a person’s ability to switch between formal and informal (both in speech and actions), dependent on if they are with their elders or friends. I have always prided myself on my ability to know when to make this shift and give respect when respect is due. With my friends, I might be more open and creative, with my peers whom I don’t really know, I might be more reserved and quiet. Essentially, what I’m trying to get at is this: you are all going to have your own unique and individual description of me.

I arrived to The United States when I was eight years old. I quickly learned English and practiced my language skills with pupils at school. My mother on the other hand was adamant about mastering the English language. She had lived in Peru for forty years and insisted the only language she would ever need was Spanish. I thought it was peculiar because this was coming from the woman who had taught me at a young age that learning any kind of information or concept, no matter how miniscule; is better than staying ignorant on that particular subject.

My first day of school in the United States opened my eyes and filled my heart with an everlasting gratitude. From the first day, I enrolled in the Rosetta Stone program to learn English. I felt great appreciation for my stepfather and this foreign country for every opportunity that had now been opened up to me. I started forcing myself to constantly speak English, I spent hours studying at home and practicing at school. My stepfather already knew English, therefore he helped me greatly in perfecting my language.

When I was just about to start school, I did not know English. I struggled to learn the language, but I worked hard, I studied the little briefcase full of English words and their Spanish translations. The work paid off in the end, so I finally learned English and was able to talk with more people than just the people in my neighborhood, and the Mexican people in my class. I could talk to my teachers, the people who did not speak Spanish, and also, I had learned a new language in 6 months. There re some funny stories involved with my first year in school. For example, my mother has told me that as preparation, they had told me that school was a place for kids only. That it was a place where the parents left the kids alone and the kids learned.

I attended a bilingual school for English and Spanish speaking kids. I have always been fluent in spanish for as long as I could remember even though english is my first language. That wasn’t the problem. All the other kids had started to read and write spanish in kindergarten, and I had to learn everything in just a short amount of time, and it was difficult for me.

“Tienes que leer y escribir en ingles,” (I had to read and write in English), said my father. People would think, “Well you have an advantage because you speak Spanish.” Well, it was easier said than done, growing up in two different worlds it was difficult my vocabularies would mix up and I would end up making a new tongue twister. Therefore, I was not fortunate with my literacy in any aspect. I would get called dumb since I would not pronounce every vowel, word nor consonants correctly. I had a rough time in elementary school because I was a “joke”, but that did not stop me from learning I taught myself how to read and write in English.

The most difficult event is my parents splitting up. My dad and I get to do fun things together,but things get tough most of the time. One hard thing that's difficult for me is knowing that my mom’s not around. I don't enjoy going from my dad’s to my mom’s house. Sometimes I go to my mom’s house and we do fun things together,but things get tough. When I go back to my dad's we have fun but things seem to be a little bit harder. If my parents were still together things would be a lot simpler. Another reason about why I don't like my parents not being together is that I don't get to see my mom that much anymore. However I just wish that I could see my mom more than I do but she's always working. We don't get

As a child I was born into a Spanish speaking family, which made my first language Spanish. I began with the similar syllables as most babies do mamà, papà, and so on. Both of my parents are from different parts of Mexico which exposed me to a Spanish speaking environment and very little writing. I wrote and read poorly in Spanish. However, the language spoken by my peers outside my home was another. Being raised in Pomona, CA my community and school practiced wo different dialects of English.