Personal Narrative: English As A Foreign Language

Superior Essays
“Spanglish”
English such a complex language something spoken by many, and yet many others yearn to learn it. That was me a young and fragile girl who yearned to understand a foreign language, a language that other kids spoke.
Although I was born in the United States I was not born speaking the native language – English. As early as I can remember, Spanish was what I spoke, heard, and understood. At the time my mom and dad only spoke Spanish in the house. To make matters worse, when I was about three years old my parents sent me to Dominican Republic for two full years. The time that I spent there was when I grasped more, and more the culture of my people. English was nonexistent. For me Spanish was the only way of life, there was nothing
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In that moment was the beginning of something new. Learning that a language can shape me as a person and be the center of my relationships with people. After my first day of school I went home and barely spoke about my day. I was embarrassed, I did not have any friends, it was impossible to make any. Every time the teacher called on me to answer a question I would respond with “que?” and the kids would just stare at me until I would awkwardly put my head down. It was a disaster. My parents tried to ask me but, I refused to tell them anything, only reassuring them that it went well so they would not …show more content…
They really wanted me to grow, because they knew that learning English was more than just learning another language, with it came a new way of life. Doors would open for me.
In order to learn English quicker I began to watch television shows, it was hard because at home my parents only knew Spanish and I needed reinforcement of the things I learned at school. So I started watching Blue Clues, Spongebob and HandyMandy for a moment I would get caught up in the background I would forget why I was watching. From them I learned my basic things, like colors, shapes, and objects. I also learned how to interact with people in specific settings that otherwise I would not have

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