Personal Narrative-Acquiring A Second Language: Italian Class

This Semester I want to set some goals for myself. I am going to set goals for myself in language Arts, Math, science, and P.E. I am going to have goals for myself outside of class too you should make goals for yourself too.

Transition: I was never to fond of learning different a language. At least not until I got into high school

Foreign language classes are often put off until high school due to the fact that this is when people believe students are most ready to learn another language. This belief is widely accepted despite the fact children are able to learn to speak like natives in foreign languages, whereas teenagers and adults usually are not able to learn how to do this. Speaking “like a native” entails being able to think in a foreign language without having to translate (Nadia 1). The ability to speak like a native in a foreign language can be easier to obtain when taught the foreign language during elementary school. Once a student passes the prime learning stages, learning a foreign language can be extremely difficult. Adults starting to learn a language have to work through an established first-language

Maya Angelou once said “You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them.” With that being said, is it important to take in all the thing people say about you? Personally I don’t think so. We cannot control what happen around us and what people says about us, but we do have the power to avoid getting control by people’s saying. My English learning journey began when I was around 4 years old. For me English is like a second nature; I use it so often that I feel like I’m more connect to it than Chinese. By the time I finish kindergarten my parent wants me to continue my education under a system that involve English. So they decided to send me to an international school. At the start I was thrill by the opportunity, but the best part of all is that I get to study at the same school as my sister.

Since my mother had lived in Italy for 16 years and had mostly assimilated, I can say that my life at home to this day has been pretty much Italian. My mom cooks Italian meals every night and my parents talk in Italian and my father exclusively watches Italian TV and for the most part listens to only Italian music. My life outside of my home has been very much American. I assimilated to the American culture pretty quickly. I obviously spoke english outside of my house and made many American friends from whom I picked up a lot. Every year I could feel that I was losing my Italian culture. I could especially feel it during my trips to Italy. When I travel to Italy, I feel my whole world changing pretty much overnight. Everything is different; the environment, the people, the sounds, the smells, and the feel of everything. Because of the vast differences I feel when I travel to Italy, it augments my feeling that I’ve lost a big part of me.

What does it mean to be Italian? Is it the way that we communicate with each other or the values that we hold? Are we proud of the way we eat during every meal with multiple courses that feel like they are never ending? It is a combination of all of these things, and that is what makes the Italian culture so great. It is important to discuss an understanding of the culture before discussing the communication rules and norms. It is important to talk about the values, style, and religion that goes along with the Italian culture.

Since my early years, I was pushed into engineering because I excelled in math and science. I took an interest in bioengineering but my heart was not there. It was just a placeholder but I was not truly passionate about it and to me that was unsatisfactory. I wanted to change my major, but to what I had not known. Going into my junior year, I was afraid my time was running out. My whole life changed when my counselor asked me,” Spanish 3 or AP Psychology?”. Having already taken two years of spanish, I opted to take the AP class. I was immediately intrigued in the subject. I went to class everyday eager to learn. I liked psychology so much because it was easily applicable to real life. I would identify things I had learned in class in and have

Being part of the Dual Language program is an experience I cherish because of how it molded me into the person I am today; someone who appreciates their two cultures. I was apart of the Dual Language club in high school, that was a club for bilingual students and for Dual Language students. Further, being part of a diverse program made me realize that I want to continue to celebrate and appreciate my two cultures. The Dual Language program exposed me to a culture embedded in my roots, for that I am thankful for it. Being active and part of two different cultures has impacted me more than any other experience.

“One of the greatest and most influential filmmakers of all time”, Federico Fellini once stated that “A different language is a different vision of life” and I, in my turn tend to say that he was perfectly right. A person who speaks more than one language can experience multiple personalities, visions and reflections consisting which language is he speaking. High School students should comprehend the real benefit of speaking a foreign language. Being a multilingual myself and speaking fluently four languages and studying another two, I consider that I am qualified enough to persuade that my argument is strong, plausible and not ultimately-right. In the following paragraphs I am going to address the following three reasons why should other High School students learn at least one foreign language? Firstly, learning a new language enhances performances in the academic domain and makes you smarter. Secondly, knowing a new language is a high estimated and a very valuable characteristic in your professional CV. Thirdly, international travel is more pleasant through knowing a foreign language.

“Tienes tijeras?” asked a young girl. Not understanding what she had said, I asked her what she needed in English, but she looked back at me with eyes full of confusion. A simple question from one young girl asking for scissors had made me nervous and completely freeze in the moment. Through this, interacting with the children worried me because of the language barrier which would make it twice as hard as interacting with the children at home.

Looking back to when I typed my first AP Language and Composition paper, I can honestly say that my writing skills have drastically improved. I started off not knowing any writing strategies and thought that typing three pages was a lot for just one paper. After completing the course, I can now write a full eight paged paper using one of the three writing strategies that we learned. Before this class, I was never a skilled writer and the thought of taking APLAC intimidated me because I did not think I was capable of completing the course. I never imagined myself taking this class because In my mind I simply was not smart enough to take it. However, due to all the positive comments I received about the class and how it improved my friends writing, I

The last time I was in Italy, studying at LdM, I was introduced to the concept of la bella figura. I was told that it is a concept not about the whims of fashion but about confidence, style and demeanor. It is about being an authentic person and presenting yourself to the world without artifice. I am excited to be studying in Florence, the world capitol of art and art restoration. The prestige of earning a certificate from an Italian institution will certainly give me an advantage as a prospective graduate student or as specialist in the field. In order to be effective in the world of art restoration I need to be fluent in Italian. Immersion is the only way to truly become a fluent speaker, listener and writer. My academic and professional goals are very important to me, but la bella figura, the authentic representation of one’s self is what I

My first Spanish class helped me discover that languages can be more than just words on a page. I had never thought of language as something that could be a thing of beauty. The way that words flow and come to life has become a thing of wonder to me, and I can't wait to continue to learn new meanings and nuances.

The summer after I graduated from UCLA, I lived in Lugano, Switzerland, working at a cafeteria style restaurant in a department store, serving caffe and gelato, while immersing myself in the Italian language with the goal of fluency. I recognized my success when it dawned on me one day that I was no longer asking people to slow down when they spoke to me. And the icing on the cake, was the morning I awoke after DREAMING in Italian! I had ARRIIIIIVED!

While I was staying in Italy, I made lots of Italian friends and could get into the culture.