Literacy Narrative Essay

In the following literacy narrative,  my purpose is to inform about the struggles that  I went through while learning my fourth language, the skills that I gained from learning it, and how I was able to use them in my favor. I acquired different ways to persuade my audience using ethos, pathos and logos.I also used experiences and emotions as my rhetoric to persuade my audience. In this case, my audience are my instructors, classmates, and the people that are going to read it on my website.

How English Became a Part of Me

January 2015 was the month that my mother burst into my room to tell me that we were moving. It wasn’t a place in Haiti that we were moving to–a place where the culture and language were similar—it was a place totally different, it was America. I was very shocked. I started to think about how I wouldn’t be able to see all the people that I’ve already formed a bond with. I wouldn’t be able to taste my cultural food. I wouldn’t be able to hear my friends gossiping about comely fellows. I started feeling nostalgic. Then, I forced myself to look on the bright side of things, about how I would be in a country full of opportunities. However, doing that couldn’t take away the sadness I was feeling at the moment.

 When I came to America, I loved the structure of the streets;  I loved the snow not the weather. It was way too cold for me since I lived on a tropical island. It was a lot to adapt to. Like the fact that I wouldn’t be able to wear my summer clothes all time because in New York, we go through all the seasons. I had to adapt to new rules like when putting garbage out, I have to put bottles together and other things together. I had to adapt to how you can’t give cash when board a train or a bus since in my country there was no metrocards. I remember going through a lot of phases just to get enrolled in school. I had to wait for a month because all my documents weren’t ready yet. Throughout this time, I remembered watching videos about how High School worked; like how there was lockers in the hallway for students to use, and there was parking lots for students with cars. I used to wonder if High school was how it is on the T.V shows.

February 2015 was the month that I started my journey through the American school system. When I walked inside of the school, I was very amazed with the structure of the school. It looked so different from Haitian schools because everything was inside of a building, while in Haiti, everything was outside except for classes. I remembered being late to my first class and the teacher was asking me something that I couldn’t understand. I remembered how I sat in class with no knowledge of what the teacher was teaching. I would be mute throughout the whole class. Even though I didn’t understand something, I wouldn’t ask. However, when I got home I would ask my uncle who is a teacher to help me translate my homeworks and help me improve my vocabulary so my English can get better.  I was always scared when other students would come up to me to ask me something because I didn’t know how to answer them or help them. I was so afraid to speak English wrong or wouldn’t be able to understand if someone spoke to me that I would go to the bathroom during my lunch period and stay there. The bathroom stall was always quiet and nobody could reach in to talk to me. I felt mentally secured in there because I didn’t have to dupe anybody that thought I spoke English. I would go home and be so sad because I didn’t have any friends and I wasn’t comfortable in school. I would go to my mother for advice, just to boost up my confidence or feel like there was someone out there that believed that I would be able to speak English.

They placed me in ESL (English as second language) class to learn English. That was the only class that I loved because I felt so comfortable in it. It was a class where nobody judged each other because we all had something in common: English was not our first language. I used that class as an opportunity to practice speaking English because my ESL instructor was there to help me improve, not to judge me. I would always bring all my questions about English or English words that I could not understand to my teacher to help me understand them. I remembered how when I heard someone said some English slangs like “ she got me tight”, “She gave us od HW”, and “ She’s goal”, I would always be eager to go my ESL teacher to tell me what they mean so I can use them later. Furthermore, my sister and I would be speaking English using terms like the teens in America used so we could try to speak like them  when we went out with our family.

I started to take initiative to learn English. I started to give myself hope that I could learn, write and speak English, that I just needed to be dedicated. I started to watch cartoons on Nick Junior and when I didn’t understand what they were saying I would rush to my bedroom to get my English and French dictionaries to memorize the word. I started to read children books at the library. I started to try speaking only English at home. I started to approach students that didn’t speak the same language as me. Then, I made my first best friend. We both were ESL students, but we tried our best to communicate and learn together. For example, if my best friend and I were conversing and came up to a point where we couldn’t express our thoughts, we would use Google translate to communicate. Moreover, I began to participate in class. I would answer small questions that did not require a lot of words. I remembered how I would always participate in Spanish class because I spoke Spanish and the materials were so easy. Spanish class gave me a sense of comfort because I felt like if there ever was a moment where I was stuck in speaking English, I could use my Spanish as a backup to explain myself. Seeing how I always got a high score on my Spanish assignments made me realized that I could actually do the same in my other classes. It boosted my confidence and I started to participate more in my other classes. I would raise my hand, read short paragraphs, and answer questions. Following teachers expectations to excel in their classes led me to being in Gold Honor roll since sophomore year of high school. For instance, if a teacher cares a lot about class participation I would always participate; if not I wouldn’t. I remembered running up the stairs to go to the English department after they told me my ESL exam scores were out, I could taste my salty sweats dripping down my forehead as I entered the room. I was so proud of myself when I heard that I passed the ESL exam, and was officially a regular student. I started to make more friends. I felt like I was accomplishing some of the goals that I set up for myself. I was finally able to speak and comprehend English. I was able to write English, but I still make some mistakes.

Overall, I feel like coming here wasn’t a mistake like I thought it was in the beginning. I realized that if I didn’t come here, I wouldn’t be able to meet all the great people that I have in my life now. My understanding of English led me to being recruited to be a part of the National Honor Society. Being in the National Honor Society helped me to socialize more with people. For example, when we did blood drives we would eat, laugh and joke around together. English also led me to being chosen to be a peer mentor for freshmen through a Peer Group Connection organization. I remembered how the other peer mentors and I would wear our gray sweaters every friday to mentor our mentees. Seeing how my mentees understood me gave me that sense of accomplishment, that I could finally speak English and that I had people looking up to me. I was also very proud of myself when I was ranked 20th out of 420 students in my graduating class. It was a euphoric moment of my life because I, a girl that came to america four years ago with no knowledge of English, was able to achieve top 20 in my school out of all the native English speakers. That made me realized that the way I spoke English didn’t matter, what matters was my understanding of the language and my intelligence. Since my English skills were more developed than some of  my friends, It made me form a closer bond to them because they would come to me when they didn’t understand certain topics clearly or they wanted me to look at their essays. That gave me a sense of happiness because I was able to use my skills to help my friends and make new friends. Coming here opened my mind to a lot of things. Like the fact that I never know where life might bring me, so I should always be prepared to take control and get what I want. Therefore, Learning English made me a stronger and better oriented person since it added up to my skills. Now I no longer say I speak three languages, I say I speak four languages with English being the fourth one. So what if I have an accent while speaking it, that doesn’t matter. What matters is the fact that I can understand you, and you can understand me.

Cover Letter

The concepts that influenced my learning and writing practices are the rhetorical situation worksheets that we did. They helped me to know that while I’m writing my assignment I need to think about who my audience is,what’s my purpose and if i’m answering what i’m supposed to. In this case, my audience are my instructors, classmates, and the people that are going to read it on my website. I can also say that my purpose is to inform about the struggles that  I went through while learning my fourth language, the skills that I gained from learning it, and how I was able to use them in my favor. I also used experiences and emotions as my rhetoric to persuade my audience. From the topic section, this phase’s assignment helped me to know how to “gather, interpret, assess and critically evaluate information and arguments from a variety of sources and points of view”.(Syllabus 3) what helped me accomplish this goal are the rhetorical situation worksheet because they make me think and do research. Annotating and summarizing the texts also helped me to achieve this goal. From the writing section, I can now “explore and analyze a variety of genres and rhetorical situation in my writing or other’s writing”(Syllabus 3) A way that I achieved this was how I was able to summarize and tell what rhetorical devices that Safwat saleem used in his Ted Talk to persuade his audience.