My Foreign Language

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.

Language can be hard to learn and I can not give you any more than my personal experience and the story of how I dealt with my past and present life in the country where I was raised. I am passionate about learning the English language more than any other language because I always thought that English was a language worth learning. I believe that war should stop in Burma and everyone should have the opportunity to learn a language. No one should be left behind.

If anyone knows another language, or if English is your second language, please write briefly how you think and feel about language as a vehicle to understanding the nuances of a culture. If English is your only language, just please respond to what others might have said.

Before starting school, I could not write or speak English at all. Because of the language barriers, I have a hard time learning English. My parents and older siblings would teach me the basics of having to know my numbers, ABCs, and by making me memorizing saying simple sentences and questions. English is everyone in my family's second language and because I did not grow up learning how to speak, read, and write in English it was difficult as I started school.

Spanish is the language of choice for us born on that beautiful tropical island called Puerto Rico. It is the first language that those born on this island are taught out tradition more than anything. It is how we communicate with each other, it is how we obtain what we utmost desire and want. Why you ask? Since it is the native language of an island that while is a United States territory is not a state of the United States. While English is taught in all schools in Puerto Rico, Spanish is the language you are taught from day one as it is the language used in all Puerto Rican homes. English is taught in schools, however in my case, not until after you start school which is around the age of five, if not later depending on where you attend school. Spanish, however, is a language that can be forgotten if not used regularly as I learned no more than a few months ago while my parents were visiting us, in the beautiful Rocky Mountain state of Colorado.

Have you ever had to learn a completely new language that you had no idea even existed? My parents would only talk in Bosnian at home, so I learned that language from them. I had no idea that the English language was even a real thing, all I knew was Bosnian. When I first started kindergarten, I had no idea what people my age were saying to each other. I couldn’t make any friends back in kindergarten because I didn’t understand anybody. My parents honestly thought I was going to fail kindergarten, because I took so much longer than the rest of the kids in my class to figure out simple words and what they meant. For example, I didn’t know what an apple was. In Bosnian, an apple is called Jabuka (ya-boo-ka). There are some words in certain languages that sound similar, so it would be easier to recognize and learn. But there is no similarity in Bosnian words and English words. I learned the English language, as well as slang, from my teachers and friends, even though it was a long and slow process.

It’s the seventh grade. Next year, the entire class of students would be required in incorporate a foreign language into their curriculum. Would it be Italian, French, Spanish, or German? Most chose Spanish because a majority of upperclassmen thought it was “easy”. For some people, they chose Italian simply because of the fact that most of their family spoke it, and they wanted to be able to interact with them in the way they were most used to. Others in school would pick French because it would help with ballet pronunciations and understandings. But are Italian and French the best second languages to learn for other people? Many may be wondering, “What are the most useful secondary languages I should learn?” English speakers should find a language that is commonly spoken in many countries, and can potentially help them get ahead in the field they desire. One would want to pick a common language, so when faced with interaction with a non English speaker, they can still have and maintain conversations. Spanish, French, Mandarin, and Arabic are the most useful second languages to learn because they are commonly spoken around the world, can be learned relatively easily, can help to land people jobs, and can provide insight among a variety of cultures.

My journey of learning English when I was a little girl. I heard another language other than mine spoken on the TV; then is when my fascination with languages began, especially English. It was the language spoken of some of my favorite cartoons that I watched at that time, so I began to listen to it carefully so I could understand what was said in them. When my older brother went to seventh grade, he started taking English classes in his school; it was the grade that students started learning English at that time. I got my hands on his English language Learning textbook and for the first time I could learn some English words from it and I would ask my brother sometimes about what he took in his classes. When it was my turn to go to seventh grade, I was very excited and I could not hide it. The English teacher had already known about my love for the language from my mother who works at the same school. She saw how much I was interested in English so she supported me with everything she could do for me to learn more.

My formal education has always been in English, and though I struggled at first, I consider it my primary language. My first memory of school was Kindergarten in Guatemala, I had no interest in this language that only the teachers spoke and soon found a way to escape it. I was young, about 4 years old and with 2 languages already under my belt, I could easily mimic sounds that made up words. I had no idea what anyone was saying, but quickly caught on to the phrase, “May I go to the bathroom?”. Like a junior detective, I noticed that every time someone said that phrase, they could leave the classroom, so I decided to try it. Enunciating every single word just right, still not knowing what it meant.

As I commenced to explore the English language, I started liking it, but most importantly realizing that if I wanted to be successful in the future; I certainly needed to speak the official language of the country. I was only in middle school when I immigrated from El Salvador, and adapting to the language, besides the new culture, was really challenging. I had to attend school not knowing much English; therefore I had to put extra effort and time into my classes, and school activities. In the very beginning, I was on my own because my mother did not speak the language, so she could not help me with any of my assignments. Even though I started getting frustrating since I could not get help from my parents, and I could barely comprehend the material in my classes, I stayed positive, and I would look for help from teachers in every class.

Living a life walking on the language hyphen is demanding. And there are high expectations from all sides. There are critical comments no matter who it’s from. And there are judgments from onlookers.

I came to this country about 3 years ago from China and I started learning English once I arrived in the United States. As you might know, Chinese and English are very different. Having English speaking parents helped me a lot in learning English. As a writer I have improved my grammar, vocabulary, and sentence structure in my writing.

I have always been intrigued by the concept of language; whether it be from how languages originated, how people learn them, or how the language creates words different from the pre-existing languages, I draw an interest to all of it. I specifically remember when I was younger, trying to create a new language of my own. In today’s world, there are more than 2,000 languages spoken around the world. Some of those languages are only spoken by a single village while others are spoken by billions of people. Those who speak the less popular languages are most likely fluent in another major one. English is one of those major languages, although it is not the most spoken language in the world, it is a competitor; however, it is many people’s choice of a second language, and spoken regularly in many foreign countries. Many schools throughout the world make it a requirement for their students to practice another language while enrolled. Unfortunately, after graduation, students never retain the language, it was simply stored in their short-term memory. Becoming fluent in another language is not only alluring, but it is very beneficial to one’s self, and the global community. Being bilingual is proven to give a leg up to people in the business world, improve one’s mental health in many ways, and additionally advance other aspects in one’s life not ordinarily associated with the learning of a new language. Why is it beneficial for native English speakers to learn another language?

At a very early age, all I could understand and speak was Arabic, the language of my people and country. My parents are very cultural and were very hard to us because they did not want us to forget where we came from. Not until I was six years old is when I met the English language in my first year of preschool. At the time, I was so frustrated and angry at my parents for not teaching me English along with Arabic when I was younger. Throughout my first two years of school, my classmates would be speaking and

Nelson Mandela, as cited in U.S Department of Education (2010), once said, if you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his own language, that goes to his heart (para. 14). Linguistic diversity has become an important factor in society and more and more people are growing up with the ability to speak more than one language. The Linguistic Society of America (n.d) states that most of the world’s population is bilingual or multilingual in the world, where an estimated 5,000 distinct languages are being spoken, and only minorities of citizens are monolingual (para. 1). Being bilingual means that a person is able to speak two languages fluently, while multilingualism means that a person can speak two or more languages with high proficiencies. In the United States and especially in the Washington Metropolitan area, a variety of bilingual people from all different backgrounds and ethnicities live together in one community, so hearing languages from all parts of the world is a phenomenon that can be witnessed on a daily basis. Their abilities have a positive effect on the human brain while also impacting different aspects of life, such as cognitive capabilities, business opportunities and social communication skills.