Sedaris French Class Analysis

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.

It was even more difficult for my mom at that time because she did not know the language as well. There were four members in our household, and my mom was the only one who working to support the whole family. As I saw my mom worked so hard to make the living, despite her struggle with the language, I committed to learning. I was fourteenth when I came to the U.S., and I found that the only way to change my family’s living conditions and to have a better life is to pursue higher education. I told myself that I could make the difference if I set my mind to it. Therefore, from that time on, I have been telling myself to study harder. Every time I came to class, I would ask

Living a double life. Like Hanna Montana and Miley, Ying/ Yang, dark/ light and chicken with seasoning, Spanish and English was made a necessity to me. Broken Spanish from the streets of Havana, Cuba and scholarly English from the well-educated schools of The United States. Multiple education is what I have received throughout my lifespan, yet my heart does not pulsate like a running rabbits’ legs nor does it get warm and cozy at the thought of reading or writing.

A new problem aroused, my problem wasn’t with English now, but it was still a problem with a language. In about ninth grade I started taking French. I took French for many reason, I loved the language and my grandma took it. I had the same French teacher for French one and two. She was a bit off and rude. She would do cartwheels and jump up in the air in class if you got something right, but she would also embarrass you in front of the whole class if you didn’t know the answer. My first day in class it was fun, I understood what was going on. As the year went on in French one, it started to get harder. I didn’t really understand much of what was going on, so I asked questions. My French teacher was kind of like my fourth-grade teacher, if I asked a question she would very rudely explain it. After she would explain it she would say “I don’t know why you don’t understand, it not hard”. She made that statement a few times to me, I soon just stopped asking questions and just tried my best to pass. I passed French one—just barely—then prayed I wouldn’t get her again. I sadly got her again. French two was much harder. I was forced to spend my afternoons with her, if I wanted to pass the class. Those afternoons were painful, it was like walking on hot sand at the beach. Every afternoon she would burn

Later, I moved to the U.S, and I needed to learn new language. It was like learning to talk and write again, but one of the most important problems that I encountered not just while learning and reading text in English, but as a college student was to understand what I was reading. At the moment when I needed to read the content of a material more than two times, I realized that

I have been surrounded by Spanish since the first day I crawled out of the womb and let out my cry of victory in Spanish. I was not exposed to English until after the beginning of elementary in which I was one of the multifold that did not have any experience with the official language of this country; nor did I care much for it. I attended an elementary where the Mexican demographic thrived. During recess, I could interact with my classmates in Spanish and somehow, we all knew what we were talking about. This progressed over the subsequent three years and I managed to pick up the English language unintentionally. However, after second grade, I got transferred to Benjamin Franklin Elementary where I did not easily accommodate to the new environment.

In eighth grade, when I chose to enroll in Spanish One, I had no idea that it would develop into a lifelong admiration for the language and culture. During my Sophomore year over Christmas, my family travelled to Valle De Bravo, Mexico. Unfortunately, I was unable to interact with anyone due to my limited Spanish knowledge, prompting me to study more rigorously the following school year. On our next visit, I returned to Mexico with an additional year of knowledge, eager to test my fluency. Whether it were a taxi driver, farmer, or vendor, I would attempt to carry on a conversation with anyone willing to talk. Even though I fumbled with words and struggled at times to understand, I was determined to improve my speaking skills. Through my discussions,

Like any average person, I’ve accomplished many things in my life from learning how to walk to learning algebra in the eighth grade. However one of my greatest accomplishments has always been learning a new language. When I was eight years old, my family and I moved to the United States from Mexico. Naturally, I was very excited and eager to experience something new but because of the major differences, the move to a new country with a different language proved to be more difficult than I originally thought.

Over time I started to think in english, understand and speak perfectly. Of course some words are hard to write or pronounce, still I can make my way through a conversation.

I started from scratch learning the alphabet in Spanish and everything else. On top of that they

One of the most difficult decisions I made at the beginning of this school year was to continue Latin.

My great-grandmother doesn’t speak english very well and struggles with it. So there’s a decent size language barrier there. I have learned

There were multiple obstacles that occurred when I first came to the US, and one of them was a language barrier. Before stepping onto the US soil, I spoke two fluent languages, which are Mongolian and Mandarin, though I never had an opportunity to learn The English language. Mandarin

At age five I knew all the letters in the alphabet, I knew how to count up to a thousand, I knew simple addition and subtraction, yet I was still the least prepared before my first day of school. Before starting kindergarten, all I spoke was strictly Spanish. To this very day I still don’t quite know why I was never taught English growing up considering the fact that my grandfather was self-taught in English and even passed his citizenship test in English as well. My infantile innocence is what kept me from realizing how not being able to speak English was not only going to be a challenge for me, but for both my teachers and family as well.

Spanish is one of the most common languages in the United States and is spoken primarily by immigrants, many of which aren't legal. The language, however, should not be a required class because spanish is not the primary language of the states. Spanish class is often a class that students fail because they know they will never need to know this language.