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​Introduction and Reflection:

When I heard we were going to be working on the Language Autobiography essay, I had a lot of thoughts in mind, since I know I had gone through many experiences with language identity and how it still has affects me in my life since I speak two languages. I can confidently say choosing a time where I had struggled the most was an easy step for me to begin my essay, but when I had got to the point into the story, it was difficult for me to narrow down and use some descriptions to tell the struggles I’ve been through. Overall, I felt great working on this essay, it’s a way of expressing myself through my language identity.

Language Autobiography Paper

Language identity has played in a big role part in my life, and I have gone through many experiences of how language identity has affected me in a way of speaking. I was put in ESOL and speech class for thoroughly nine years in Elementary school, and including the first year of high school. When I was younger, I’d never knew what ESOL class were for, I’d always thought it was a regular English class, not English learning class. I didn’t discovered that until I got to the age of twelve. Every morning or in the afternoon, a person would call for me and other English- learning students to go down to ESOL class. I still remember the moment of  being embarrassed from the time I stood up from my chair and had to walked all the way down to ESOL class, and it  felt as if my feelings were shuffling from the moment I was called to go down. 

           I was born in the U.S. and I speak two languages; Khmer and English. I was taught both languages at the same time, but I had incorporated Cambodian language more than English when I was younger. Ever since I started to developed my speaking, I was always told that my voice were tremendously deep and that I couldn’t talk right. Many people said it was probably because my tongue is big. I wasn’t really aware of that myself, I had always thought I spoke clearly until I heard my own voice from recording it. I was very aroused by the way I sounded, 

“How could that possibly be me?” I asked myself.

 When I listened to my own self talking in the video I recorded, I then knew what went wrong with the way I spoke, it was the “s” sounds. Each time I say a word that has the sound of an “s”, it would seem as if I had stuffed myself with a big wad of chemical cotton candy with braces hanging loose in my mouth. 

  I have a similar story to Amy Tan, “Mother Tongue” story. According to “Mother Tongue” by Amy Tan she says, “My mother’s English is perfectly natural, it’s her tongue. Her language, as I hear it, is vivid, direct, full of observation, and imagery. That was the language that helped shape the way I saw things, expressed things, made sense of the world.”  Amy’s mother struggles with grammars, pronunciations, and people who would criticized of the way she speaks, and that relates to how I was when I was younger and had not yet developed in English language. I still have some trouble with that, but it isn’t as bad as it was then. Just like Amy’s perspective, I have always described my language identity as “broken” or “fractured” English. 

One day a new student came two months after school started. This student came from Cambodia and didn’t know very much english. There were me and two other students in the class who is Cambodian, so we had to help and translate for him. One major problem is that the other two students doesn’t potentially speak our native language and I can’t necessarily translate from English to Khmer fluently. It was very confusing for the new student, but he could only understand if I said it word by word. 

“ I don’t understand. You guys are Cambodian, you speak the same language, how can you not know how to translate to your fellow classmate that speaks the same language as you?”

My english teacher was concern. That was very embarrassing to me even though she said is to all three of us. I feel like I’m a very slow learner. I can understand my language, but I can’t speak fluently nor translate for someone else who knows the same language as I do. Well, that’s just how I developed my language. I can fully understand, but I can’t speak fluently in my own native language. 

Throughout the years In elementary and middle school, I have not had the fully potential of confident to raised my during discussions or any other curriculum. I was always picked on by the teacher and feel embarrassed for not knowing the answers or sometimes I do know the answer, but I just don’t want to speak up. The only reason why that happened to me because I didn’t want my voice to be heard. That time I was more concernative and afraid about people opinions, and that they’ll judged me based on my opinions and the way I speak, but when I came to high school, it was a whole new world to me. I feel like I can express my feelings through language identity when I participate more in some classes and through many essays I’d written. Language identity is a way to express one main self. 

This new version of the example features better comments explaining each line of code.

It also includes the changes we made in class today to create a variable (radius or r) that holds the ball's radius and is used to make the ball bounce before any of its edges goes off any side of the canvas. (notice in the previous example that the ball doesn't bounce until its center reaches an edge)

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Jessica Mairoano

 

Introduction: I think that people knowing and learning different languages are important and it’s something that I wanted to write about. My language autobiography is about some of my experiences with learning a different language also authors experiences and that they wrote about.

Reflection: This project was very difficult for me at first because I had no idea what I wanted to write about. I never really paid attention to what other people had to say about language so it was interesting to read about other people’s opinions. My strengths with this project were writing my own experiences because it was so easy to talk about. My weaknesses were trying to stay on topic since it had to be almost a thousand words I thought I was going to get off topic.
 

Paper:
In school you are required to take a second language for at least two years, but why? Why can’t I just know English? What if I don’t want to learn another language? We are all taught Standard English and that is the right way to speak so why would they teach us something different? The school district thinks it will benefit us in our future but what if we don’t think it will? Then why do we need to know two languages?

The day has come the day I get my first quarter report card for sophomore year. I walk into the tiny room with my advisers and my mother. I look down at my narratives. I had an amazing report card but unfortunately Spanish is the first subject on the list. My mom looks at my report card disappointed because of my Spanish grade “D?” she says with a frown on her face. I was not happy with her face at all. I went on and on about how my grade could be better and most importantly how I got that grade. First, I said, “I do not understand Spanish it’s just not my subject. I don’t want to take it next year if I am going to keep struggling.” My mom stopped me right there and said “Isn’t it much better if she knows two languages?” Mr. Kay my advisor said “Yes its much better” At that point I realized that I should make the decision if I want to learn a language or not.        

“Language, a place of struggle” says bell hooks. Those five words mean a lot because language is a place of struggle. In my opinion language is important because not only do you need to know English to communicate with people but also if someone speaks a different language you need to know how to speak it to, that’s not always easy. Spanish for example is totally different from English and to expect someone to learn it and be able to speak it fluently is much harder then you think. I feel as though if you don’t understand the language and don’t want to learn it then that’s your choice. But again, if you think about that line “ Language, a place of struggle” you know its going to be hard and you can work through it.

Sometimes you need to do certain things to exceed in the subject you are learning. In the story “I just want to be average” by Mike rose, mike rose talks about some of his experiences in the classroom. He was placed in the Vocational track, which are mostly classes for students who are not doing well in school. Mike thought he had to be like everyone else and be good at every subject. When people learn languages or just any subject in school everyone is at a different level that is okay. Mike Rose did not understand that.

My first day of Spanish 1, one of the scariest days of my life. I have my binder and pencil out and the first thing I write in the corner of my new shiny loose-leaf paper is “Ahorita,” which means do the activity on the board right now. I didn’t no what to expect, I didn’t think I was going to do well in this class. As the days of the school year go by and I am just passing with a B when I know I can do better. I thought that since this was my first year ever learning a different language, which me not understanding it is okay but then the next school year came. I was dreading the day I had to step foot in the Spanish classroom, like always I put Ahorita at the top of my paper the first day. I knew that coming into Spanish 2 was going to be a little rough for me because I had difficulties the previous year. It turns out I was right. When I received my first test back it wasn’t what I wanted it to be. I went straight to my teacher to seek for help. He explained to me that it is fine that I am having difficulties. It will get better if I just keep studying. I realized everyone is at a different pace. I am normal I just need to work harder.

Yes, it may take a lot of work and you may struggle and at times it might not make sense but language helps you accomplish greater things. Language helps you work harder to achieve your goals. People might think now why do I need to talk Standard English or even learn a different language but in the long run it will pay off.  

 

 

This is from our Physics Driver's Ed project, meant for teenage parents to stay focused.

Keiasha, Nick & Taina

Don't be a fool..

Our PSA for our Drivers Ed Project. 


The Link To Our Write Up.

Spanish Benchmark

​Don't be a fool, follow the rule!

Don't text and drive!

By: Cyndi Lynn Sheridan, Cheyenne Pagan