Essay On The Importance Of Literacy

Discovering the Importance of Literacy As I read the prompt, I struggled to think about a time when literacy became important to me. The word “literacy” to me is just being able to read, write, and speak. As I stared at my blank computer screen, waiting for an idea to come up, I remembered that I have a unique trait about me that other people in my area do not have: I am bilingual, but my first language is Tagalog, not Spanish. Most people believe that Tagalog is the same language as Spanish because they have a similar alphabet, but it is different in many ways. Some of our words are derived from the Spanish language, but most of the words either differ in context, spelling, and how/when it is said. For example, the word car in Spanish is “coche” while in Tagalog it is “kotse”. These words differ in spelling, but they almost sound the same when it is said. I started to look back at the time when I was beginning to …show more content…
Although I never knew the word “literacy” when I was a child, I realized its importance without even knowing the definition. My errors on learning a completely different language only pushed me to become more literate in English. While I still think the definition of the word “literacy” is the ability to read and write, the meaning is much more significant to a bilingual speaker since you are learning a completely new language, and forced to communicate in a different way than you were used to. Literacy is the building block for communication, and I am very fortunate to have learned its importance at such a young age. I always think to myself, “What is the point of having great knowledge when you cannot share it because you are illiterate?” If I did not learn English, I would have struggled trying to communicate with people in America, closing all the doors and shutting down the opportunities I have today. Being bilingual is truly a