Why Do We Learn

Coming from a new country I had to face many challenges. All these challenges made who I am today. When I came to the United States in 7th grade, I barely knew how to speak English. The language barrier posed a serious problem for me. I found it difficult to interact with people. Adjusting to a new country was no easy task. When my family and I came to this country, we knew only one other family. It was even more difficult for my parents who knew virtually no English. They had to learn how to work and provide for me and my siblings in this entirely new country with a completely different culture. Despite having a better background in English, it still took me over two years to become fluent in English. Although coming to America and having

Everybody has educational barriers, and everyone has a specific way to overcome it.There’s always going to be barriers, but I never gave up. My first educational barriers were learning.In 1st grade it was hard to communicate with my classmate and teacher.I felt disappointed in myself and discourage making me feel important. Meanwhile, my cousin taught me how to speak English fluently, we first started with basic words like ‘’hi’’ or ‘’good morning.’’That’s how I worked myself through this barrier and to this day, I know how to speak English fluently. Although, some students would make fun of me because I would have an accent. For example, when people come from a different country and they try to talk English they would have an accent of their original country. In the other hand, I was failing math because unlike all the other students, I am not the fastest learner. I would always get confused with the structure and format of the question. For instance, fractions, decimals, and word problems would confuse me . Accordingly, I wasn’t very good with solving any of that so I knew I had to start attending tutoring. I had very good help from the students at Loma Linda University. They taught me an easier way to solve any problem, and that caused my test scores to increase. I can pass that class with no problem now. That means a lot to me because I know what will happen if I don’t give up. I will overcome any barriers that come my way! In addition, I would say that my educational barriers have been learning to speaking , reading, writing and math. I know I can overcome any barriers by putting all my effort and time into it. Education is the way to success, but I am determined to get there no matter what I go through.

Moving from Jordan to the United States was challenging for my family. I was the only child at the time and my parents primarily spoke Arabic in the house. The elementary teachers I had described me as a timid student, because I could barely speak English. I had difficulty with simple reading and writing, while other students went through class with ease. Needing extra tutoring classes and years of being in ESL was exhausting. However, learning how to read, write, and speak English fluently was only the beginning of my journey.

I was born in Vietnam, and moved to the United State when I was ten years old. The biggest obstacle that I have encountered is the ability of reading and writing . I could not speak, read, and write fluently in English like other people. I did not know why it took me so much time to read a few pages when other kids were almost done with a chapter. I did not know why other kids are doing their essays in the span of a few hours, when I needed to spend a couple days to finish my essays. I have spent eight years of my life of working on my English skills and I am not satisfied with the result. This causes me so much frustration. My earliest memory about reading, writing, and speaking in English was very unpleasant for me. In the many years of learning a second language, Mrs. B helped me start to learn a new language, Mrs. Jon helped me to read better, and Mrs. Remsburg showed me the basic progress that the beginning writers should have.

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

My Dad didn't go to college. He worked long hard hours at southwire and traveling. As I was growing up he told me to keep working harder, and not to give up in life and just work for things. He wants me to go to college or the Air Force that way. I have a better job and I don't want to start my life off struggling. Instead of struggling he wants me doing good. College is not worth the cost, because some people can not afford it. With college being expensive a lot of college kids having to work and study and go to class some kids just can't handle it.

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.

As an adolescent I had many birth issues and illnesses including asthma. These issues had kept me out of school, giving me less time to learn the basics of reading, writing, and math. Because my mother coached varsity volleyball at Novi High School, most of my childhood was spent in the gym. My father did not always have the best grades, in fact high school was the same for both of us; however, as he continued to college he had increased his study habits and earned himself over a 3.0 GPA. My two sisters are both really school smart, and then there was me, the one who struggled with school. In my Junior year my father got sick and I was on constant worry about my family and how he was doing. School became harder for me to focus on because of this issue and none of my teachers helped me out with the number of assignments. Family was always first with us, then it was education and school, and continued off with friends and fun such as sports.

While in elementary school I was diagnosed with a type of dyslexia, which did not make school easy for me because I already had a speech impediment due to being tongue tied. I got taken out of class everyday in elementary school to work on my speech and reading skills. Most teachers just thought I was not intelligent and put me in the lowest reading groups. Third grade was a turning point for me; my teacher, Mrs. Eddy, saw that I was intelligent enough to understand the hardest material, and she did her own research online which no other teacher had done for me. She helped me come up with techniques to help me read with my dyslexia more than any other teacher or reading coach had in school. I even started to attend a speech class in Edinboro every other day after school. I eventually learned how to work around my dyslexia and speech impediment. By the time I was in sixth grade, I did not need any more special attention for my impediments, and I started to take school more seriously. Now that I am over that tedious obstacle in my life, I am always striving to be the best version of myself as I can possibly be. I have worked way too hard to be stopped by anything that stands in between me and my

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

My first encounter with English was at my mother’s workplace. I picked up some words when my mother spoke to customers, but had no idea what each word meant. When school started, I didn’t talk to anyone since most of them spoke English so I felt like an outcast. Still, I tried my best to do well in English, however in fourth grade kids found it humorous that I struggle when I spoke English and they would bully me. When they teased me I would get frustrated and would sit there sobbing and feeling morose for hours and hours. Finally elementary school was over and its time to go to middle school

Because I had problem with English, I decided to spent a lot of time study English. The effort came out well as I could confidently make friends and talk to them. Also, I found a job and now could help my parents more on the financial side. I now think that the level of the challenge is not a problem as long as you always think positive and choose to face

the day and English at night, but my transition was harder due to my poor foundations of the English language. I now had to speak, write, and read in English, when I preferred my native language, Spanish. Immaculate Heart Elementary School provided a tutor to help me read from the textbooks in my third grade class. I had difficulty communicating with the teacher and classmates. I felt embarrassed for not understanding English, and sad knowing that it was hard to speak with my Spanish accent. Even though I was placed in such an unfamiliar and difficult situation, I enjoyed the educational atmosphere. I felt safer in an environment where I had some individual attention. I began to write essays about various social studies related topics such as the 41st President of the United States and the Statue of Liberty. I recall spending a lot of my time thinking about the ideas I should mention in those essays, but I spent even more time trying to get those thoughts on lined paper. I wondered whether I was saying things the correct way. I felt behind compared to the other student in my class. I didn?t know the basics of grammar, like when to use ?is? and not ?are?, when everyone else had mastered that area of study. I struggled thinking in Spanish and

Everyone in this world has obstacles in their life, and sometimes they are hard to overcome. For me, the hardest obstacle that I’ve ever had in my life was when I came to study in the U.S. The obstacle wasn’t about communicating with others in English, but it was that I was in a new country, new school, new rules, new ways of teaching, and most importantly new friends. Although, I learned some English in my country in an international school, but still there was a whole a lot to be learned. My first day at school, wasn’t really that bad except for the part that everyone was staring and talking about me when I walked down that hallways and in the classes, and I also sat by myself during lunch, the reason was because I’m Muslim and Muslim girls

To begin, my literacy path, I was held back by my mom in kindergarten because I would never let people help me with my homework. I was always quite, I remember vividly that they would one of my family members would put the work that I had for kindergarten infant of me at the table where I used to and still do my homework and I would just be looking down at my hands while playing with my tiny fingers. They would be asking me questions about my work but I would just block out their voice until it was late and they let me get up to go shower to go to bed and that repeated several times. Until the next year when they held me back I guess a switch seemed to turn on and actually let people help me, I think it was also because in my first first grade class I don't remember having any friends but in my second one I remember having several and even a crush. My first day in speech I don’t remember that well but I do remember who my teacher was and how much I loved her. I always loved going to speech in elementary because it was like my little secret because they would never announce it to the whole class and most of the time they didn't even have to