Learning A New Language Essay

Spanish has been crucial to me for my whole life because it shows that I’m bilingual. Not only do I use it in school, but also at home with my family. For the most part, this language has been with me since I was a little girl. I began to speak Spanish at age two and learned how to write it at age four. My parents helped me practice Spanish by speaking it. They also told me read Spanish books out loud, so I could speak it fluently. Luckily I went to Mexico when I was seven, but I only went that one time, so I haven't been able to practice with my whole family. In addition, I’ve had Spanish classes since kindergarten and now as a junior I continue to learn new things. As a teenager, I seem to use it more in my daily life, because my parents only speak Spanish which is how I’ve gained experience. For example, when my parents took me to Mexico at age seven, I learned to speak with all my family.

A lot of incidents happened along the way of learning English as a second language and many of them are rather funny than made me in trouble. What I was doing was foolish and I had to change how I see my new world and Adapt to it. I had to force myself in order to start making new friends and learn more about the American culture. I had a lot of good neighbors who helped me pass that period of my life and made it a little easy a comfortable to speaking in English. They guided me and encouraged me to speak more and never be shy again from my language and accent. Yet, I am still working to enhance and improve my language capabilities to be much better in the future. I view this phase of me learning a new language is a work in progress instead of learning something from the beginning. I am keeping a note next to me all the time, and whenever I hear a word or phrase that I don’t know, I write it down and I keep repeating it again and again until it sticks in my mind I become confident when I use it.

As I began elementary school I was in ESL and in regular classes. My first language was Spanish but I also spoke the minimum of English. However, my speaking and understanding of English weren't sufficient enough to comprehend in class. Elementary school was hard for me because I was still not comprehending a lot even though my English improved. My parents tried their best to help me with schoolwork. It was until middle school my mother started to work. Without both my parents being there to help me I didn't know what to do. I knew that they would not always be able to help me. In order to take care of my

Spanish is my native language, however, my mother advised my siblings and I to speak only English. This was because she was afraid that we would be rejected from professional careers if our English wasn 't unaccented, fluent, and similar in refinement to the working class whites. With time, I became a fluent English speaker with a developed Central American accent but like, any other young girl, I thought nothing of it. That is until one event, in particular, occurred that would cast a shadow of embarrassment onto my Spanish language. This event not only led me to desert my entire native language but a sense of my cultural identity, as well.

My high focus and dedication in the classroom helped me to succeed in learning the language. Also, even by just watching Sponge Bob on television somehow helped me learn the language just as well. As with the cultural problem, I managed to overcome it with my strong will and character as I broadened my horizons as I met newer and better friends that understood my pain and helped me go through with

When I arrived to the United States I faced a challenging situation in my life, I didn’t know English. This challenging as I didn’t know how to communicate with any of my teachers or classmates, and I wasn’t able to do any of my work. Not being able to participate in class upsetted me because in Mexico I was use to doing all my classwork and homework. Therefore, I decided that I was going to do everything in my power to learn English quickly. So, when the my ESL teacher announced to my parents that they were going to have to take to school during the summer, I didn’t mind at all. When I was in summer school I learned a lot of English due to my determination and my hard work. Looking back I wouldn’t do things differently because I know that

Within this paper we will take a brief look at the Language Acquisition Principles and how they work on the behalf of ELL students. We will see how these principles can be applied within our own learning environment. There is much information from Walqui article that gives a brief overview of ELL students and how things looked in the past for these students. Now that times has change we will see how educators can make the requirements for ELL students better and more effective for teacher and students. Hopefully, as we look at ways of changing learning for our ELL students we must remember that every student learns differently. Even if you follow the principles from

When I entered school my parents refused to place me in the Spanish-speaking classroom. They feared the discrimination I would face as an immigrant segregated from Americans, a complexity that they combated everyday in their lives. No matter what my parents tried, they could not shake the feeling that they did not belong here. So much so that I was forced into an English speaking class with barely any knowledge of the language. Although I was scared at first, I was an obedient student and thus able to blend in like any American child, just like my parents wanted. After a couple years, I even began to give my father basic lessons in the English language during dinnertime, explaining to him the difference between hot dog and perro caliente. Somewhere between my effortful pronunciation and accidental commentary in English, I lost him. He exclaimed that he didn't need to know English, that I knew it well enough for the entire family. As the reality hit me, my

At home, I first spoke Spanish. My parents came from Mexico to Turlock, California in the 90's and could not speak English sufficiently. Before I was born, the majority of my family were born in Jalisco, Mexico. As a child, my parents taught me how to speak Spanish and I learned English from a tutor who came to my house to teach basic phrases and writing in Spanish and English. This way, I could be fluent with both. I am grateful that my parents assigned me to the program, which prepared me for elementary school. For this reason, I still suspect that without that program I could not be in Honors and AP classes that I have today. What additionally motivates me to speak Spanish efficiently is that I have been able to assist others by translating, and the skill teaches me further of another culture. When I am in Mexico, I feel comfortable and I enjoy speaking Spanish in stores and in the plazas around the towns. Not only that, but I love being able to talk to family fluently. Overall, speaking Spanish feels important to me in order to be closer to my family and the culture.

My team stayed at a missionary's church with a Korean missionary family who are all fluent in Spanish.They became fluent in Spanish after living in Mexico for about two years and have three children who are also fluent in Spanish. The fact that the two had learned Spanish fluently in writing and speaking amazed me, as I’d been taking Spanish in school for three years and was nowhere near fluent. There were many moments throughout the missions when I would just look at them in awe because of how fast they spoke when conversing with a Spanish-speaking person or when they were speaking in front of a large crowd of people. Moments like this made me question my study habits, my attention span, my urge to learn, and my ability to learn quickly.

At the age of five, I spent my nights running through my house screaming "I don't like English and I will never learn it!" as loud as I possibly could in Spanish. I had just arrived to the United States and was so terrified by my new environment that I sought solace in my native tongue. My preschool teacher coaxed me out of my timidity and continually extolled the virtues of knowing several languages. Within a year, I was able to speak and read English at a sixth grade level; it was only then that I saw the value in living abroad and participating in the foreign. The ardent feelings I experienced at five years of age resurface whenever I leave my home. However, the fear that once plagued me in my immature state is continually being replaced by excitement and gratitude.

There are some images associated with Korean food, but the most well- known Korean food is absolutely Kim-chi. Kim-chi is a traditional fermented Korean food. According to the Health Magazine, Kim-chi is one of the top 5 healthiest foods in the world. It has full of Vitamins A, B and C. But since it is a fermented food, its biggest benefit is their healthy bacteria which are called lactobacilli.(health.com) So, Kim-chi by itself is just a pack of lots of good stuff and we can see our ancestor’s wisdom of keeping their body healthy from food. From the early stage that Korea has been settled down, Kim-chi has been served on Koreans’

In our everyday lives, the origin of our ability to communicate is usually not often taken into consideration. One doesn't think about how every person has, or rather had at one time, an innate ability to learn a language to total fluency without a conscious effort – a feat that is seen by the scientific community "as one of the many utterly unexplainable mysteries that beset us in our daily lives" (3).. Other such mysteries include our body's ability to pump blood and take in oxygen constantly seemingly without thought, and a new mother's ability to unconsciously raise her body temperature when her infant is placed on her chest. But a child's first language acquisition is different from these

South Korea is one of the most homogeneous countries in the world, in which it has its own culture, language, and customs that are different from other Asian countries. In South Korea, the citizens greatly value hard work, filial piety, and humility in their daily lives. South Koreans are very proud people in which they pride themselves in their traditional culture and their financial success.

I was the “funny guy” in my clique of high school friends. Ever since I learned to read English, I enjoyed reading and collecting joke books. I exhausted every single joke book from the small community library in town. Riddles, jokes about animals and wildlife, reasons why I didn’t do my homework, lawyer jokes, and later on, ethnic jokes. I knew they were funny, but I wanted more. Perhaps it was my lack of physical achievements that made me obsess with a need to entertain my peers.