Anastasiia Chorna
English 11000
Feb 18, 2015
My Learning Of English
My friend Julia and I went to the same college, where we had English every semester for 5 years. Our English learning there was based mostly on memorizing new words, phrases, full texts and learning grammar. There was almost nothing about pronunciation or actually keeping conversations in English. The majority of English teachers – not only in our college but in all of Ukraine – have never been abroad and have pretty thick accents. That’s why even though I could understand my professors easily, I needed to put in real effort to understand people in the United States during my first year there. On the other hand, I had developed pretty good vocabulary afterwards. Ironically, I was not able to use it. Julia, on the other hand, did use it, regardless of our horrible pronunciations and infinite grammar problems. So why couldn't I do the same?
I believe the answer lies in our homes and families. We both grew up in middle class families and our parents were always occupied with work. We both were raised by our grandmas. The only difference was that my grandma wanted me all for herself and Julia’s grandma wanted her to go outside and play with other children. I can’t say I didn't have friends when I was younger, but I definitely spent more time listening to my grandma’s stories and songs and watching her favorite soap operas. Those soap operas were dubbed, so for me at that time it was like a game to actually listen to the original lines of actors, trying to memorize them in order to later mock their funny, exaggerated (as I thought at that time) reactions. However, I had a younger sister who annoyed me, and who never missed a chance to make fun of me, especially when I tried to brag about new words I learned. My sister unintentionally affected my confidence in my usage of the English language. This increased my awareness of how I sounded when I spoke English, making me feel embarrassed and gradually decreasing the frequency of my use of the language. I believe that these moments in my childhood affected my usage of the English language even though I knew how to speak it.
In our first encounter with a native English speaker, I couldn't find the words to ask what I wanted to say. Suddenly, I heard Julia’s voice from behind me “I’m sorry, how go to Umtruck?”. She meant to ask him how to get to Amtrak and the poor guy needed her to repeat the question a few more times to understand where we wanted to go. He then needed to repeat his answer a few more times in order for us to understand his directions. It made me wonder how two individuals who went through the same educational system could have different responses.
Meeting that strange person made me worry about how I sound and about what phrases I should use, and how I should build my sentences. My friend didn't care much of what people thought. She just would say words in hope that the person would understand her and that I would then understand his response. It worked like this for a very long time when we were living together, but eventually she fell in love and is now happily married. What about me? I found that in order to make new friends, to get a better job, to go to college, the first and the most crucial requirement is always to know English. Therefore I moved out from the Russian speaking area in New York where I used to live, and took the initiative to start listening only to English music, watch English movies, and read English books.
Although my confidence wasn’t that high at first, I realized I had no other choice but to speak in order to improve. I faced moments of frustration, and this actually helped me gather my thoughts and produce the sentences that I wanted. I wasn't quick on my feet when asked a question but I kept trying. Eventually, I was able to have small conversations that didn't require much thinking and could ask basic questions without having a heavy accent. Reading books was also a challenge, but using a translator helped me to understand the meaning of words which I later used in my conversations. I constantly used new learned phrases in my sentences in order to remember them. Music helped my pronunciation of words and movies helped my conversations flow smoothly.
The educational system gave Julia and I the fundamentals of English, but our personal experiences also affected how we used the language. I believe that moments in my life have affected the development of my literacy in English. My sister’s actions affected my confidence, but my sudden need to learn the language so that I could live on my own allowed me to overcome my fears. This enabled me to use the language more frequently without having a constant worry of how I sounded.
I've told you this before, I believe, but your English skills are very well developed for someone who thinks she has a problem speaking the language well. Sometimes you have trouble finding the word you need - but I'm a native English speaker and I sometimes have trouble finding the correct word. You needn't feel ashamed or nervous about such.
ReplyDeleteVery interesting narrative. Your narrative stands out from the rest because of where you came from. The beginning of the narrative was very engaging. It gave me a taste of your background, your personality as well as your level of confidence when dealing with another language. I was drawn into your narrative by your strength and the fact that you chose to accept a new language yourself. Your narrative gives the readers a clear overview of what obstacles you've overcome in order to get to where you are today. Although there are a couple grammatical errors here and there, your narrative, overall, is clear and concise and is able to draw the reader in and show the reader what you had to deal with, whether it was moving out to another area or forcing yourself to speak English, in order to gain the literary education you have today.
ReplyDeleteMy reflections:
ReplyDeleteWriting my literacy narrative was one of the hardest tasks that I've faced. I wrote research papers before, I love reading - you would think that writing three page essay about my gaining of literacy wouldn't be a problem. But you don't know how far from the truth you are. I can't explain why, but the whole process of digging dip into channels of my memory, trying to restructure and rationalize for someone else something that have been understood only by your own mind and only in your own way is a tough challenge. For some reason my consciousness just doesn't want me to look back on my past through some other eyes and explain to some other ears.And later on realizing that it's gonna be open to public and anyone will be able to read it didn't make me feel better or anyhow more confident about it.
Knowing that writing this is required was like taking a bitter pill, but maybe there gonna be some good of it. I really want to believe there will be. I cannot see it now, being at a state I am after such a heavy pressuring of myself into writing it, but I'm sure professor Moore has all the reasons giving such a task to us.
I really enjoyed reading your literacy narrative. You have a very catchy story. To some extent, I could also relate the experiences you had. Not only your narrative shares and expresses your learning experience, but it also gives lessons to other people like you and helps to boost and strengthen them up and also teaches to be fearless to learn what you want to learn.
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