Personal Narrative: My Hard Time Adaptation

By then, I was able to somewhat communicate with the teachers and some students. I was able to get my ideas and my opinions across when we were assigned a group class work or project. Day by day my English was improving; the sky was the limit. My confidence was also on the rise. I started to get out of my comfort zone by socializing with students and participating in class exercises. I was more involved not only in classroom activities but also extra curriculum activities, such as fundraisers, clubs, sports and more. Then it came to my attention, as well as my classmates that I spoke with an accent. Classmates would make fun of me and laugh at the way I

I started drawing when I was 16. I was cursing 10th grade, or how is called in my country, Dominican Republic “Segundo de Bachillerato”. It was recess. I was alone in my classroom that day, besides two or three people who were just killing time there, and I didn’t had much to do with my time. I was at the last book of a series of books which names I can’t remember and If I recall correctly the last book was very boring for some reason so I didn’t wanted to read it anymore. So, looking for something to do, I stood from my seat and walked boringly down the aisle of chairs and that was, not my first interaction with art, but the first time I remember i liked art or paid attention to it. Yerkis, a guy of my class: short, chubby and well mannered

Learning to read and write has been an adventure for me. Speaking English as a second language has been harder than I have realized. When I was growing up my sister was already in her teens and didn’t spend much time with me. I wasn’t to social with kids of my age until I started preschool, so when I did attend preschool I didn’t really have any social skills. I was shy, and very quiet, not speaking or understanding english very well. Within my first couple years of school I was able to quickly learn fluent english and started to develop relationships with my classmates. I couldn’t successfully communicate with anyone in which caused my participation at school to be low. I grew up in a home with all adults, my parents, and my sister was

Overall, my first semester has been going pretty well. The semester is going like a roller coaster up, down, and fast. I have some bad days and some good days. Through this semester, I have many challenges I faced which I honestly did not want to face. Even though I just wanted to dodge or run away from the challenges, I still face them and fought through them. Some challenges I face this semester, hopefully not in the next, are procrastination, time management, and laziness. I have not only gone through challenges; I have also gone through successes. I am proud of turning assignments on time, passing tests and quizzes, completing my SCR points, and being involved in clubs. Being in Biomed has helped me grow as a student in the area of knowledge.

My recent move from India to America during my junior year was an enormous challenge for me, which led to many other smaller challenges that I had to face. I had to adjust to new environment, school, people and an unknown country, which was difficult. Leaving my friends who I grew up with, and finding new ones was also an obstacle for me. But, a quote that inspired me… “difficult is not impossible moving to the USA was a challenge, but it also gave me an opportunity to improve and to grow. Practicing speaking every day, learning the pronunciation of words to improve my English, believing I could do it, asking for help rather than letting those problems push me down, I started to improve, and this all helped me adjust. I practiced pronunciation

I was forced to come to America at the age of 13, knowing only Spanish. My junior year career was not pleasant because of that factor. I started off with four classes that were meant to teach me English. I was distraught and confused. I left my friends, my dad, and my life to come here. I was not comfortable at all. I felt alone, but I was not alone, there was another 12 students with the same obstacles as me. Now at the age of 18 I am proud of what I overcame and I can truly say these three strategies assisted me while overcoming my obstacle, Lifelong learning, develop mutually supportive relationship and believing in yourself.

I put in practice some words that I learned in school. I started having short conversations in English with different people because I had expanded my vocabulary. I would always carry a computer with me because it was helpful . The computer help translate the words I didn’t know. I also stopped being self-conscious because I had to try to speak in English if I wanted to learn more . I mispronounced some words , but I learned from that because someone else would say it correctly . I felt very proud because I was overcoming my obstacle. Additionally, I felt like I was fitting in , and my grades continued to go up. I also was eligible to play in the soccer team. As a result,I can say that the language barrier was an obstacle that made me a stronger person because I overcame the obstacle that life put in my path. Moreover , I never gave up, and I think that’s what life's about. In effect, my GPA is 3.5 now when it used to be 2.0 or lower. These 3 years of high school have been challenging , but I have been putting effort. I am getting more fluent with the language. I am prepared for the next challenge, which is

Walking into my high school, I already had trouble understanding the language, and top of that, I constantly feared eyes judging me. I felt lonely and lost hope of living a joyful life similar to the one I experienced in India. At times, I grew frustrated with the criticism I received when I could not effectively express my thoughts, but today, I write papers and give presentations fluently. My tenacity disproved my judgment and I started believing anything is achievable with determination. When I acknowledged the criticisms and challenged myself to learn the language and make wonderful friends, a different me

I was born in Hong Kong and I grew up in the Philippines. I went to a Chinese school and had to learn four different languages (Mandarin, Fukien, English, and Tagalog) all at the same time. I learned Chinese because my dad planned for us to live in Hong Kong in the future; however, there was a change since my grandma petitioned my dad to come to the United States. Schools in the Philippines teach English since it’s the most common language in the world, but the English curriculum in both countries are different. The language barrier was always, and I had to adjust to the language when I moved here to the US. Because of my previous experience with learning a second language, it was not difficult for me to adjust. However, growing up in an environment that mostly speak Chinese or Tagalog, it felt strange for me to speak in English 90% of the time. My cousins who were born here helped me adjust to the language. They helped me practice my English and taught me the proper way to write essays in English. However, since I was new in the neighborhood and in the country, I was afraid to speak because of my heavy accent. I was scared that other students might make fun of me. Despite my shyness, I was able to make some friends who made me

I want to leave, I want to disappear. Not a vacation, but that spontaneous quick escape with no bothers, just an unrestricted trip to free the mind and enjoy the bits of silence. To go by car to see how the scenery around me changes as I kill the distance, while listening to my favorite music as loud as I can. Just shout out my lungs with my terrible singing. As the music plays, I will grab a book, which will get all my beliefs and views away. No matter what the book will be about. As long as it would get me away, away from here. There would be just me and the characters of the novel, who struggle, fight, and compete, while they face delight, pleasure, and glory. Every so often, I will stop at the cafes on the road to grab some food, which

The biggest adversity I have faced in my life was when I immigrate to the United States. It was entirely a different culture, people and language here. Since I was born and raised in India, where English is not a primary language; it was the toughest challenge for me to comprehend completely what people say here in America. Which became a hurdle in my path of getting a job in beginning. However, my determination to complete my goal for higher education, gave me the will to manage and overcome all the obstacles in United States. I observed things intimately and adapted new environment very well. I tried to communicate in English as much as I could to make myself proficient in it. I’ve driven hard in learning new language in order to achieve

Similar to Tan’s mother, I realized my limitations to having a fluent conversation with people I communicate with and I made a huge effort to attend English reading class and to frequently visit the writing center to reduce my accent limitations, so that I can be able to fluently interact with people in the school and my work place, and this has greatly helped me.

I plan to improve this disposition by having boundaries and limits. It does not matter if the client shares the same cultural beliefs from me, I have a lot of compassion and go an extra mile to help them. I get attach with clients right away because I see a connection with them. I have noticed that clients take advantage of my empathy. I need to work on how to understand my clients but also have limits with them so they will not take advantage of my kindness.

Have you ever hit the highest peaks in your life and suddenly dropped deeper than the ocean? Almost like the adrenaline you get on a roller coaster. It goes to its highest point and then falls down at an accelerated rate. In other words, this describes the term “Life”. It may seem like the situation is all well and good, that is until the changes start to arise. It is something everyone will end up experiencing and adapting to throughout their lifetime. These changes in our lives permit us to be even more positive and more hard working, "What if I told you that 10 years from now, your life would be exactly the same. I doubt you’d be happy so why are you so afraid of change”- Karen Salmansohn . This quote is significant because it allows individuals to open up and not be afraid of the change that is occurring in their life.

After immigrating to the United States, the biggest obstacle that I struggled with was learning English. In my new school, I had a hard time communicating with my classmates and teachers, and I strained every nerve to understand what people were saying. Constantly having to deal with language differences and new surroundings made me feel anxious and tense. I remember the first time that I had to do a group presentation, and I was extremely nervous. Every single person in my group could fluently present our ideas. However, I was the one that spoke at the speed of a turtle and with a terrible accent that nobody could understand. Therefore, I decided to conquer this barrier by studying harder in English.