The Importance of Reading and Writing “Mama, I hate America! All they do is speak ENGLISH.” At the age of six, I moved to the United States from the Philippines. As soon as I arrived, I immediately called my grandmother complaining about how much I disliked it here. “All my cousin does is talk to me in English and she is annoying me,” I said. Coincidentally, I am not even able to speak the Filipino language anymore. Although I can still understand it, now I only speak English. The English language has strongly benefitted me and has allowed me to do things I did not imagine myself capable of.
By being born and raised until the age of six in a completely different country, one would assume that I struggled with learning the English language. Surprisingly, I adapted quickly and easily began to communicate with others in America. I feel this was because I was surrounded by people speaking the language, whether it be at school, the local supermarkets, or the park I grew up playing at. My kindergarten teacher suggested that I be in an ESL program to familiarize myself with the language. I only went to the class once since the English Second Language teacher felt that my speaking and understanding was adequate. Though I did not know as much as the others in my class, I knew enough to be able to associate myself with them. During recess and computer time, I always found myself trying my best to speak English in order to make friends. As a young girl in a completely new place, the
The day I stepped off the plane and landed in America, I knew that I’d have to face a great challenge. Being a first generation immigrant from Vietnam, I would have to learn English as quickly as possible. Although I’ve arduously prepared for this transition by learning basic vocabulary and grammar in my native country, I quickly realized that my practical aspect of using the language such as listening, conversing, pronunciation to be insufficient. By immersing myself in an English-speaking world, I finally addressed my lingual deficiency within a year.
Learning how to read and write was a challenging task for me as a kid. I believe I couldn’t read until the second grade and that was embarrassing. Being a slow learner made me insecure, which hindered me from building the confidence I needed to succeed and get pass identifying with having a disability. Instead, I was enrolled into a special ed class that I had to leave my regular class to attend. During my special ed class all I could think about was how I couldn’t wait to get back to my regular class so I didn’t have to tell any of my classmate where I was. Therefore, my focus unfortunately wasn’t on learning, like it should have been!
The love for a better place for their children to learn and grow, drove my parents to move my siblings and me from Nigeria to America. The adjustment to a new community and culture along with the: education system, government, currency, social norms, and language were difficult for my family to adjust to. In elementary school, I found it difficult to communicate with other students; I tried speaking to them the way the people on old tv shows spoke, but they did not “catch my drift”. As I got more acquainted with the language I began joining clubs and playing sports. I was not placed in an ESL, English as a Second Language, program because I knew just enough English to barely pass tests. I was unable to keep up with the language and vocabulary
Coming to America was great, but my biggest worry and barrier is and was English. Once I enrolled in school at Benson, I struggle to make friends because I couldn’t communicate with them as much as I wanted to. All I could say to my teachers and friends were the basic English like “Hello, my name is Biak”, “How are you?” and “Good-bye.” I felt myself getting frustrated every time I try to communicate with someone because they couldn’t understand anything.
When I was six years old my parents decided to move to the U.S. I was placed in first grade after taking two placement exams. For approximately six months, I attended the Newcomer Center in White Plains, NY. I remember sitting on a red carpet and spending a lot of time listening to the teacher read stories. I also remember doing phonics every morning. I excelled in math, but struggled in language acquisition. After several evaluations I was assigned to a public elementary school within the school district. In second grade, I was placed in a monolingual classroom. I was later assigned to a pull-out ESL program, which I benefited from immensely. I started to enjoy reading in English when I was with my ESL teacher, Ms. Cello. Learning a new language
IT is traditionally around first grade when children are taught to read in school. Some children catch on before this with the help of parents, and others are slower to read at expected levels and speeds. I can say without hesitation that my mom sent me on the path to be a reader. My mom is an elementary school teacher and so she started to read to me at a very young age. I have memories of listening to her reading everything from Love You Forever to Little Woman and lots in between. I am fortunate that my mom read to me so much because I picked up reading before going into kindergarten, starting with Goodnight Moon. 1st grade. Taught to read. Had to read for class. Harry potter and the sorcerer's stone, would read on own time, with help from mom. Before this it had primarily been listening to people read to me, small picture books like goodnight moon.
Everyone around me was silently sitting, staring down at their laps. Me, on the other hand, would just sit there and stare at a wall, while humming to myself. I never understood why all of my classmates enjoyed reading books. Correction; I actually just did not understand what was wrong with me, and why I did not enjoy reading like all of the other kids did. Reading never sparked my interest due to many reasons, including; being distracted, being laughed at, and the books I was forced to read.
Reading and writing are both important; you can’t have one without the other. They are skills that are increased constantly due to little things that most times are not noticed. Whether it is from a book to a poem, there will always be a way that it helps out your school performance. Reading and writing in general only helps absorb information, and enhance leisure or school related writing tasks. It has also made life itself so much easier because reading and writing are so beneficial for school and for life. How much you read and write today, will somehow affect your future job, family, position, or even your salary.
Reading and writing are two of the most important tools in my life, because without them I would not have an education. They form the basis of a class; for example, completing a lab in chemistry would not be possible without following a written lab procedure. These two skills are taught at such a young age, and as education advances students must continue to strive to reach a higher level. I can remember in elementary school, we were always pushed to reach the next reading level once we had successfully mastered the one we were on. It was always a competition for my sister and I to be at a higher level, I usually won. Even though I was excelling in reading it was the complete opposite for writing. It is something that has never come easy
Reading has always been something I have enjoyed. I feel like reading takes some time to get to the level where comprehension and accuracy are equal. There are some good things that have happened to me because of reading and there are also some bad things that have happened because of reading.
From a young age we are taught reading is something of grave importance. In kindergarten through second grade I wasn’t afraid of big green monsters, adorned in claws and spiky things. What I feared most was located upon pages and flashcards. The big terrible words written in black. Those horrible words I had to sound out and how tiring it was to utilize that pointer finger that kept me from unabating confusion of what comes next. The only thing worse than reading in itself was reading aloud.
If you couldn’t read or write, how would you tackle your daily life? Being literate is a crucial part of everyone’s life; reading and writing are essential for a person’s success. Every single day, it’s used, whether it’s for an Advanced Placement Language class or reading a billboard as you’re driving past. As a child, I grew up reading on a daily basis and I believe that I am as successful as I am on behalf of it. Countless memories have been created, thanks to the multiple books that have been read and the umpteen amount of papers that I’ve written. Throughout the numerous years of my education, my teachers and parents left a long lasting impact on my reading and writing skills.
There is nothing that has had a bigger impact on my life than learning to read and write. I remember being in elementary school and the teacher emphasizing that reading and writing is fundamental. I didn’t know what that meant or why she kept repeating that over again. As I started to grow older I slowly understood a part of it. It began by observing my father every morning, he would buy the Spanish newspaper and would read it. One day I asked him if I could read the newspaper, I knew I couldn’t read Spanish but I was curious. I recall breaking up the words and putting them together like I learned in school. To only realize that Spanish is phonetically written. From there I learned that there is an important connection in Spanish and English that is important just as reading and writing in my life. There are many types of outcomes that I gained from learning to read and write. Such as being able to expand my knowledge, observing how communication is interacted in reading and writing, and appreciating the creativity of it.
Reading is something at almost all people do. It is a cornerstone of our modern society, that along with writing takes up a major part of our time. In college, students are expect to read and write a lot. Between reading textbooks or articles to catch up on information for class to writing out lab reports or essays or even math answers most, if not all, of what a college student has to do for class can be put in either the categories of reading or writing. That being said when it comes to unwinding a lot of what I do is either reading or writing. I love to read novels, from modern young adult to the classics, along with independent short stories found online, and subtitles on all movies. I am also an avid writer, I write short stories and novellas for fun and to relax. I have even won awards for my writing when I was in high school. Reading and writing aren’t just a cornerstone of my life they are the fondation, almost everything I love stems from literature. Still, I have to be in the right mindset to read or write certain things. I can’t just sit down and do my homework anywhere, I have to have designated spots where I work. That is why I have four places that are, with the exception of one spot, that all have a specified purpose. The chair in my dorm is for homework, the cafe in library is for reading textbooks, the gym is for podcasts, and my bed is for everything.
As a learner, writer, and a reader I consider myself to be strong. In my opinion, these traits add up to create a good English student. Over the course of this year, I have improved greatly as a student and as a learner. Comparing new works of this year to older works I composed at the beginning of this year, I believe that I have not only evolved as a writer, but as a reader and a learner as well. I strongly believe this has been one of the most improved years of my Language Arts career.