The power of Language

           My parents, my little sister and I came from Barcelona, Spain in 1993. My sister and I were very little, I was nine and my sister was four, and what the best part was, we didn’t speak a word of English. It was great let me tell you. My parents had learned English at school, but by Peruvian teachers who had a really thick accent and they themselves didn’t know how to speak it well. All my parents knew is that they could carry on a basic conversation, but if the person spoke too fast, (in other words normal speed, but to them it was fast,) they were not able to understand a word. My little sister was still learning how to talk so it wasn’t hard to change her language from Spanish to English, for me it was another story.

            When I arrived here it was April and the school year was almost over. What my mom could understand from the teacher was that if I didn’t pass the third grade I was to go to summer school in order to start fourth grade in the fall. I wasn’t going to have that, but how was I going to learn English in two months? Although I tried I felt that I couldn’t understand a word my classmates or teacher was saying to me. One language I did understand, though. Math language. When it came to this subject I left everyone else in the dust. For some reason third grade math in Spain, was more life fourth grade math in the United States. Needless to say this wasn’t enough. I was not able to write a sentence in English by the time school ended in June.

            I began summer school one week later and that was it. I went for one day and I couldn’t stand it anymore. That day something in me snapped and I knew how important it was going to be for me to learn English. I was determined to learn it by the end of the summer and start the fourth grade with my old classmates. In going to the library and picking up pre-school books as well as repeating the things I heard on the radio and TV, I was able to speak as well as write in English by the end of August. My teachers couldn’t believe it and neither could I, but I had done it! I had beat the odds and I was off to a great school year.

            My parents felt guilty that they hadn’t put my sister and I in English classes since our coming to the United States was inevitable, but they were proud that we learned it. They learned an important lesson about language that summer and they knew how vital it was for us to be able to communicate. Although they knew this, they didn’t want us to lose the Spanish that came from our heritage, so that fall a very valuable rule took place. In the home only Spanish would be spoken, and outside English.

            It was this rule that has made not lose the language spoken by my parents and grandparents and I am very thankful for that. Now that I am grown I understand the significance of the lesson they learned back then and now I pass this on to my children as they grow up I make sure Spanish is spoken in the home and English everywhere else. This will help them not only be bilingual and help them with jobs in the future, but I’m also passing on culture and heritage which is something that I know they will treasure forever.

The beginning...

           This is the first blog in my life I've ever had to write and I don’t even know where to start. I usually enjoy writing in journals, but this is different. I’m used to writing with a pencil or pen in a notepad or in a physical journal. There is something about having something in your hands that makes it all the more personal. In any case I will have to get used to typing on the computer.

            In this English 103 class we are learning about critical thinking and research. I know for me when it comes to doing research on something I have to have music in the background while I read through books or academic journals. I cannot have the room that I’m reading it be completely silent because my mind just starts to wonder off and then there’s no way I will be able to concentrate on the subject at hand. Then when I need to put this on paper and analyze what I just read I either like to make a timeline, outline, or some sort of method to organize my thoughts or ideas. This way my brain isn’t a jumble of words that have no real meaning. Again, I have to do my timeline or outline by hand. I must say I try to apply these ideas with my daily activities and my life as a whole. I enjoy planning things out and writing them down in case I forget any details. I must have hundreds of papers scattered all over the different places I’ve lived in with some sort of writing regarding an event I was planning, or even my daily tasks for one day.

            When it comes to analyzing things there are some things I enjoy doing more than others. For example politics is not my forte and therefore I leave that to my husband to analyze and come up with his own conclusions. The media is something that I might look into a little deeper. This method of communication is so intense and so extravagant that it can be both helpful and hurtful. I’ve seen how by the media people have been brought to justice, but also have hurt people’s feelings by the way different people post things on youtube or other types of websites. Professional works are always fun to analyze as it feeds your mind and one makes connections with other things previously learned. It’s always a great feeling when something previously learned did not make sense at all and then all of a sudden it is explained different in another book or journal and all of sudden it makes perfect sense!

            By the end of this class I hope to better my analytical and critical thinking skills so that I can become a better scholar as I progress through higher education. I know this class will be both challenging and enjoyable as I begin to process and comprehend the different readings as well as the writing assignments. All in all, I hope by then end of the semester to be able to write a 10 or 20 page paper without having it feel like it’s the most dreadful task I’m ever going to do.