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Journey Of An English As A Second Language Student

706 Words3 Pages

Tittle: Journey of an English as a Second Language Student

Having been born and semi-raised in the Dominican Republic to a Dominican mother and a Puerto Rican father has allowed me to grow into the cultured individual that I am today, as I have always lived my life while in sync with both of the aforementioned ethnicities. When my parents decided that our family would relocate to the United States, however, the thought of having to become accustomed to an entirely different lifestyle and culture seemed almost intimidating to my own sense of likeliness to succeed: to triumph in a country that was not my own, where Spanish was just a language spoken to communicate with your parents, and where I would be made fun of for my accent and mispronunciation …show more content…

Personally, I was not yet ready to make this country my own, and by not learning the language, I thought I would be able to hold on to my identity for longer. Sometime during my first two years of high school, I finally began to start feeling more at ease, but that was only up until I realized that the teachers, students, and staff were labeling me and therefore marginalizing who I was and everything I was capable of doing: to them, I was never Paolah Ch, I was simply “the ESL student”. I was not known as myself but was instead known as whoever/whatever it was that others saw me as, and that is exactly what motivated me to change so that I not survived, but ultimately thrived in high school. I had to come out of my comfort zone, where I felt safe and content, in order to become who I wanted to be and whom I wanted others to see, and the process was never …show more content…

I needed to let go of the fear of losing myself, while in the process of reinventing a new me. Therefore, after my sophomore year of high school, I began a new experience. I started practicing the English language more, using everything in my power to try to be the best speaker, reader, and writer that I could be. I was made fun of, thousands of times, for mispronouncing words due to my accent. But I kept going. I was placed in a regular, English-only speaking class; though I was excited, I was still very much frightened at the thought of the unknown. My English was not and still is not perfect but it is fine, because I know that English will never be my first

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