Free Essay On Literacy Narrative

I began learning English because I considered it as an important part of my education. Much of the world speaks English. I plan to travel and want to be able to communicate with many people. Learning a few of the languages that the majority of the world speak will make that easier for me. Being bilingual makes getting a job easier as well. Many classmates of mine have also learned English as a second language, a good friend of mine from South Africa, in particular.
When I began learning English I knew a few students who already spoke English. Some spoke it as their native language; others had learned it as their second language. The children I knew who spoke it as their native language were obviously very fluent. Children I knew who were learning it as their second language were fluent as could be expected. Many were teaching themselves which made their progress more impressive. I had a few friends who had learned it on their own as well outside of school. They were not as advanced as the children in school who were learning English, but they had jobs and families. Two of my aunts had attempted to learn English as a second language. One had given up while the other had excelled relatively far. She did not understand many of the verb tenses but was understandable.
Mt perception of their fluency has changed over time. Prior to learning any English myself, any English I heard them speak sounded very impressive. Not to detract from their progress, it was impressive. Learning any language is impressive. However, now that I know more about the language, I see that they were not as advanced as I realized. As I mentioned, my aunt did not understand verb tenses very well. Many older friends who were teaching themselves would end sentences with prepositions and frequently misuse contractions. I see now, though, that the English language is very complicated and again, for teaching themselves their progress was very good. The children’s progression was just as impressive then as it is now. Children learn languages much easier than adults.
Many things about learning English have been fun for me. I enjoy speaking English with others, even if everything I say is not perfect. I use the conversations as an opportunity to practice, as well as gain an understanding of English vernacular. I am getting excited about the prospect of helping people while speaking English and being able to travel easily. The ability to communicate while in another country makes traveling less stressful. Learn how some of the languages are connected, yet somehow different, has been the most fun. German sounds very similar to English in many ways, yet they somehow sound nothing alike. However, if here certain words in German, I can now sometimes understand what they mean because I have a better understanding of English definitions. The same can be said for the romance languages. I find these connections very fun, as well as fascinating.
Despite how fun some of English is, much of it is torturous. Spelling does not make sense. Pronunciation does not make sense either. Hearing people speak is often difficult to understand. There, their, and they’re can be confusing. Hear, and here sound similar but mean different things. To, too, and two are all confusing. Shed and shed mean two different things, one is a noun, while the other is a verb, and if I do not pay attention to, or understand the context I will not understand the meaning of the word. I have yet to see situations like this in any other language. It is very frustrating when it happens.
My aunt and a few of my cousins have asked if I can teach them some of what I have learned about English. Classmates have asked if I can tutor them as well. I have grown relatively proficient in some aspects of the language and feel as if I can help others. I have yet to help classmates. I do not feel my abilities are that great, but I have helped family members. The experience was fun. They enjoyed it, and so did I. My aunt just needed some refresher points in order to remember a few things she had forgotten. She could not remember the order in which nouns, pronouns and other tenses are distributed in a sentence. She also did not remember what nouns or pronouns are. The experience allowed my family members to learn, and it allowed me to practice my skills.
I do not have an end goal for my English literacy. I always want to be improving my skills. I believe if I set an end foal, if I ever meet it I will stop working and I am afraid my progress will stop or I will even get worse at English literacy. In that way it would seem that my goal is to always be working and improving my English literacy. This means I will technically never meet my goal but this is a positive thing. My South African friend did have a goal for their English literacy. They wanted to learn English well enough to write a letter that could be understandable to their English pen-pals. There were many miscommunications when he was trying to write to them. They did not understand him very often and he wished to correct this. He managed to do this in a relatively short time.