my language experience essay

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My Experience of Learning a New Language

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Updated: 5 December, 2023

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Works Cited

Gardner, R. C., & Lambert, W. E. (1972). Attitudes and Motivation in Second-Language Learning. Newbury House Publishers.
Dörnyei, Z., & Ushioda, E. (2011). Teaching and Researching Motivation (2nd ed.). Routledge.
Brown, H. D. (2007). Principles of Language Learning and Teaching (5th ed.). Pearson Education.
Cook, V. (2008). Second Language Learning and Language Teaching (4th ed.). Routledge.
Ellis, R. (2008). The Study of Second Language Acquisition (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press.
Larsen-Freeman, D., & Anderson, M. (2013). Techniques and Principles in Language Teaching (3rd ed.). Oxford University Press.
Lightbown, P. M., & Spada, N. (2013). How Languages are Learned (4th ed.). Oxford University Press.
Nunan, D. (2004). Task-Based Language Teaching. Cambridge University Press.
Nation, P. (2001). Learning Vocabulary in Another Language. Cambridge University Press.
Schmitt, N., & McCarthy, M. (Eds.). (1997). Vocabulary: Description, Acquisition, and Pedagogy. Cambridge University Press.

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Essay About My Experience Learning English

I love English language. It’s one of my favorite things in the world. I think it’s amazing how such a complex and nuanced language can be learned by anyone who is willing to put in the effort.

English has truly opened up opportunities for me both professionally and personally. I’ve been able to travel to many different parts of the world and communicate with people from all walks of life. And I know that my ability to speak English has helped me stand out from the competition in the job market.

To me, learning English is a lifelong journey. There’s always something new to learn about this fascinating language. I hope to continue learning and using English for many years to come.

As someone who has learned English as a second language, I appreciate the nuances and complexity of the English language. It can be challenging to learn, but it is also a very rewarding experience. English is spoken in so many different countries around the world, and it is the language of business and diplomacy. Learning English gives you access to a global community of speakers.

English is such a versatile language. You can use it to communicate with people from all walks of life, in all parts of the world. It is the official language of more than 60 countries, so there are plenty of opportunities to practice your skills! Whether you are traveling or doing business overseas, knowing English will help you get by in any situation.

English can be a difficult language to learn, but it is definitely worth the effort. With so many opportunities to use it, learning English is a great investment in your future. I encourage everyone to give it a try!

I would sit in my crib and look at the pictures in these books. My parents read to me every day, and by the time I was two years old, I could already read a few words. My parents were very proud of this accomplishment. I continued to learn more about the English language at school. In the second grade, I learned about nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, and prepositions.

I also learned about sentence structure and how to write a five-paragraph essay. My teacher also introduced me to great authors such as Mark Twain and Ernest Hemingway. I was very impressed by their writing style, and I wanted to imitate their writing techniques in my own essays. However, I soon realized that their writing style was very difficult to imitate.

I think that being read to as a child helped me develop a love for reading. I also think that it helped me learn English more easily. When I was in high school, I took an English course in order to fulfill my foreign language requirement. Even though I had been speaking English since I was a baby, I still struggled with the grammar and vocabulary concepts that were taught in the class. However, by the end of the semester, I had learned more about English than I ever would have if I had not taken the course.

I believe that learning a second language is important, and that everyone should have the opportunity to learn at least one other language. However, learning a second language is not always easy. It takes time and practice to become proficient in a foreign language. I think that the best way to learn a second language is by using immersion methods. Immersion methods involve learning a language in a setting where only that language is spoken. This can be done by living in a country where the target language is spoken, or by attending a school where the target language is the primary medium of instruction.

I have had the opportunity to use immersion methods to learn Spanish and French. I spent two summers living in Spain, and I currently attend a university where all classes are taught in French. I have found that immersion methods are the best way to learn a foreign language. When you are immersed in a language, you are forced to use it constantly. You can’t rely on your native language to help you communicate with others. This type of exposure to a foreign language helps you learn the grammar and vocabulary more quickly and effectively.

I think that English is an important language to learn, and that everyone should have the opportunity to learn it. I also believe that immersion methods are the best way to learn English. I have seen first-hand how effective immersion methods can be, and I am confident that anyone who uses them will be able to learn English quickly and effectively.

I would also play alphabet games and learn new words every day. I was very excited to be learning a new language, and it showed in my eagerness to participate in class and learn as much as possible.

Now that I am an adult, I still appreciate the English language for its nuances and its ability to communicate complex thoughts and feelings. There are so many words in the English language that have multiple meanings, depending on the context in which they are used. This level of complexity allows for a high degree of expression, which is why I believe that the English language is one of the most beautiful languages in the world.

It is also a very versatile language, which allows for its speakers to communicate with people from all over the globe. I am grateful to have been taught English at a young age, and I continue to learn new aspects of the language every day. I believe that it is never too late to learn and appreciate the English language.

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Becoming Bilingual: An Experience That Changed My Life

John Nobile Carvalho is a Biochemistry major from Uberlandia, Minas Gerais, Brazil. John’s inspiration for writing this paper was in finding the most significant and impactful moments of language learning. The reason he considers his essay important is “because during the writing process I was able to recall memories and think of the journey I’ve been on, and all the challenges I’ve faced while learning two languages.” He also credits remote learning with providing plenty of time to devote himself to his studies and this project: “I was aware that this factor could help me focus and write something interesting for people who are not bilingual as well as people who are bilingual.” Besides being a student, John is also a musician and a book lover, and counts the blues and science-fiction books among his passions. He states that he “could never live a day without playing my guitar for a few minutes, or not reading a few pages of a book. These are the two ways I have to escape reality and enjoy the moment.”

The process of becoming a bilingual person can be seen as a long journey, which has several challenges, but at the same time several achievements. Learning a new language can be considered a challenge because it goes far beyond just learning to use words, expressions and knowing how to apply correct grammar, and what I mean by that is that you have to make mistakes, live in situations where you feel vulnerable, and go through difficulties. Even though it is not a simple task, I believe that this process allows us to develop persistence, willpower, maturity and a lot of discipline. Given the explanation, I ask myself the following question: what was my process of becoming bilingual, and how did that make me who I am today?

Well, my journey started relatively early in my life. The first memories I have in mind, when I had contact with the English language, was around the age of 7 years old. I mainly remember the moment when my father used to listen to songs that had quite different lyrics than what I was used to listening to in Brazilian music. I remember asking my dad what those words were and what they meant, and I also remember referring to them as ‘‘strange words.’’ I can perfectly remember the way my father had explained to me that it was English; he said it was a type of language that human beings use and that in particular it was used elsewhere in the world. That fascinated me, and with each day that passed by, I would ask my father to show me more and more music by American artists; this led me to develop a passion for Blues, Rock, Jazz, and Soul Music. I loved the rhythm, melody, and harmony of the songs of these musical genres, but there was a big problem. I could not understand practically anything about what the lyrics were saying, and that was quite frustrating.

After a while, it started to bother me, so I realized it was time to take an initiative. I realized it was time to seek to understand the meaning of the lyrics of the songs I loved so much. I remember sitting on the floor of my room, trying to read and pronounce each word in the rhythm in which I heard them in the songs. I also remember feeling quite angry at first because I could not understand anything at all. Over time, this curiosity made me discover that I could use online translators and websites that made music translations available from English to Portuguese. At that moment I realized that there were no more limits for me. I knew that everything would start to flow naturally.

Basically, my relationship with the English language started to develop organically, and after a few months of practicing English, the words that did not make any sense started to make all the sense. I was obsessed with learning new words, phrases, and expressions. When I least expected it, with the help of subtitles, I was able to watch cartoon shows, movies, and documentaries in English. I felt fulfilled when I was able to understand certain simple dialogues, for example in the video games that I used to play, and for me, that was rewarding. Another memory I have was when I joined elementary school, and the public school where I studied used to offer English classes, and I remember having ease in these classes thanks to all the effort and dedication that I had put into studying and practicing English on my own.

As time went by, my relationship with the English language was solidifying and becoming stronger and stronger. I practically did not listen to music in Portuguese anymore; I did not care about watching cartoons and films in Portuguese anymore, which made me more immersed into American culture. I remember in 2009, when I was only 11 years old, my cousins and colleagues who played football with me asked me why I did not like to watch Brazilian and South American football like “A Liberators da America” (South American Tournament). I always said that European football championships like the Premier League (from England) were more interesting, but they did not understand that I thought it was interesting because I was discovering a “new world”. Right after I turned 14, my parents gave me my first skateboard, and it motivated me, even more, to continue learning things related to English and American culture. I used slang in English with my friends and tried to speak in English with my English teachers at school. I used to sing and play songs in English. I found it fascinating the fact that in less than seven years I had already learned so much about English.

During these seven years of studying and learning the English language, I remember listening to a lot of people around me, like my parents, uncles and aunts, cousins and several friends saying that I was doing the right thing. English was a synonym for “success and mystery” in my mind. They used to say “João, you must learn the English language, as this will bring you great opportunities in your future”. Everyone was absolutely right, and I say this because all the incentives and motivations they gave me were essential for my evolution and progress. I am incredibly grateful mainly for my parents, because thanks to them, I was able to have access to a good education. I was able to access the necessary resources to continue making progress. Without them none of this would have happened, and I would never have gotten as far as I did.

Now, after fourteen years of dedicating myself to studying the English language, I realize that my view on it has changed dramatically. At first, I was just a child venturing into a strange and unknown language, and that was incredibly attractive. When I say that my vision has changed drastically, I mean that now this language is not only a source of curiosity. It has practically become the tool that allows me to connect with the world, and in a way even with myself. I can say with all conviction that being bilingual is one of the most important tools I have in my life. I would say that English for me today is like the oxygen that I breathe all the time, and what I mean is that I can no longer live without it.

English is not just another language that exists in the world. For me, English has shaped my identity and the person I am today. What I mean by that is that English is not just a language, in my life it goes much further. A beautiful example that I always carry in mind is how English made me develop a beautiful conception of music. I consider myself a musician, and I consider music as one of the greatest inventions of mankind, and thanks to the English language I was able to venture into the world of music. Nowadays I study music every week in English: I play in concerts; I play with my friends, so through this example, it is evident how English managed to shape one of the main characteristics of my identity. Another example that comes to mind is that since I was a child, my biggest dream of all has been to become a scientist in the future. That dream only started after I watched countless scientific documentaries, read several books by phenomenal scientists like Carl Sagan and Neil deGrasse Tyson, and with every day that passes I am sure that my dream will be realized. Thanks to English, I was able to develop the habit of reading, watching documentaries, searching for information and building knowledge, and in my opinion, I think this is incredible. Through the study of this language, I was even able to value my mother tongue even more because like English, Portuguese is an intriguing and spectacular language that I am proud to speak.

To emphasize how crucial the process of becoming bilingual has been in my life, I can tell you how my life has changed completely since I moved to the United States. My first real contact with American society was a wave of feelings and emotions. To clarify what I am trying to say, I could use the experiences of author Orhan Pamuk (2007) as an example, when he describes how frustrating and difficult it is to adjust and adapt to a new culture and a new language. The silence was sometimes my only form of expression, as it was his. However, the best part is that this “wave of feelings and emotions” made me realize that all the years of study and my effort should be valued and put into practice. After a few months, I already felt more comfortable, so I was able to enjoy everything that this new environment had to offer me. I developed not only a love affair with the English language but also with the city of Boston. I had an epiphany and a profound reflection that, like Brazil, the United States is also the place I refer to as home.

This leads me to another interesting and profound reflection that I have been experiencing lately. The fact of moving to the United States is not only a great opportunity to have a beautiful future, and it is not just another phase of my life. It is also an opportunity to be able to connect worlds and cultures. Amin Maalouf (1998) clearly describes how beautiful it is that bilingual people living in other countries can be sources of knowledge, and according to him, these people have a great responsibility in acting as bridges that connect different cultures.

Maalouf is absolutely right, and his reflection resonated with me because I feel this responsibility; I feel responsible to share the American culture with my friends and family who live in Brazil. Likewise, I am responsible for sharing Brazilian culture with American society. I think this is extremely important because if I do that, I can make a difference in the world, I can help the world. I can help the world become a harmonious place, and I feel that I can use the knowledge I have to help people to develop more empathy, respect, and love for people from different places and cultures. Being bilingual and living in another country means having the responsibility to help people and eliminate any kind of prejudice, intolerance, and misunderstanding that they have in mind.

Given all these facts, contexts, and personal experiences, I return to my question: what was my process in becoming bilingual, and how did that make me who I am today? Well, the answer is quite simple, I have had an incredible journey so far. Every second studying English, all my effort, every person involved, every mistake made, every learning experience — all of this was crucial to getting me to where I am today. This journey brought me knowledge and reflections, which helped me to better understand the world and myself. I would never have imagined that English would bring me so many opportunities — all of this was beyond my expectations. I am sure that English will bring me more unique experiences, and I can say with all gratitude that I am ready for all of them.

Maalouf, Amin. (1998). Deadly Identities (Brigitte Caland, Trans.). Al Jadid , 4(25). Retrieved from https://www.aljadid.com/content/deadly-identities .

Pamuk, Orhan. (2007, April 7). My First Passport: What Does it Mean to Belong to a Country? (Maureen Freely, Trans.). The New Yorker . Retrieved from https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2007/04/16/my-first-passport .

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1 Your Language Experience

As you learned about in the “ Welcome ” section of this book, there are many different Englishes spoken around the world and even within the United States. A single person may speak multiple different Englishes depending on who they are with and what they are trying to communicate. In this chapter you will watch a video and read a short story that illustrate some experiences of children of immigrants to the United States with various Englishes. You will then think about how these experiences are similar to or different from your own experiences and write a reflection on your own experience with Englishes and other languages.

Chapter contents:

“3 Ways to Speak English” by Jamila Lyiscott

“My Many Voices” by Wilsee Kollie

“Mother Tongue” by Amy Tan

Reflective Writing: Your Language Experiences

Jamila Lyiscott is the daughter of immigrants from Trinidad, and she grew up in Brooklyn, New York. She gave this speech when she was a doctoral student at Columbia University in New York, studying literature and race. Now she is a professor at University of Massachusetts, Amherst and the author of the book Black Appetite. White Food: Issues of Race, Voice, and Justice Within and Beyond the Classroom. She made this speech to illustrate how she is articulate in three different types of English: the English of American academia that she uses at college, the Black American English that she speaks with friends in New York, and the Trinidadian English that she speaks at home with her parents. As you watch the video, think about all of the Englishes and other languages you are familiar with in the various contexts of your own life.

“3 Ways to Speak English” by Jamila Lyiscott, YouTube.com

Hint: If you’d like to read the transcript of the video or read a translation into a different language, go to the TED website to view the video along with these resources.

After watching the video, discuss or journal about these questions:

Jamila Lyiscott says, “I speak three tongues. One for each: home, school, and friends.” What kinds of language do you use at home, at school, and with friends? Why do you think your language use is different in these different contexts?
Jamila Lyiscott says, “Sometimes I fight back two tongues, while I use the other one in the classroom. And when I mistakenly mix them up, I feel crazy, like I’m cooking in the bathroom.” What do you think she means by this? Do you ever feel this way?
Jamila Lyiscott says, “I have decided to treat all three of my languages as equals.” Do you treat all of your languages as equals? Why or why not?”

Wilsee Kollie is a student at Kirkwood Community College, and she won first place in Kirkwood’s 2023 code-meshing contest for her poem “My Many Voices.” In this poem Kollie reflects on the various voices that inhabit her consciousness and contribute to her identity as a young immigrant from Liberia to the United States. Listen to Wilsee read her poem in the video recording below.

It’s the rhythms and the blues that I feel in my voice, I rejoice in my tone, I speak and breathe infinity, My mind transporting you across the realm of equilibrium, Across the equator, as I am the narrator of my own story, Of my own truth, To be told through the voices of me.

One voice smoothly arousing your canals, as they travel through your drums bea-ting Slow-ly immersing you into an intimacy, Another voice speeding its way through the traffic of our days, As I stumble on the tracks of excitement, Around the world with people who give me a constant sense of comfort-ability.

I speak the way of the world, Masking into the person that you may want me to be. Native of a culture that I speak with my mother, As we grieve the loss of our country, But we keep and hold a part of our nation to our hand, as we say, “Woh you go’in, come here oh” And I answer in my sweet americanized accent of girl, “I am going to a place unknown” E-nun-ci-a-ted ev-er-y syll-a-ble on my own Cause that’s the way that I’ve learned, that i’ve been shown in the schools, The tools to alleviate my voice into what they call correct, Of what they call proper.

But what you need to know is, my voice is a prosperity Showing the inbetweens of my identity, Speaking informally, as I please, with my friends Speaking culturally, as a treat, with my fam And Speaking formal, as a need, in advance “Hello mam” “Yes sir” “Pardon…?”

This is a letter to my many voices, A pen pal to my many choices.

When we meet, I hope that you don’t just see the surface, But realize the many regions of my words, Coerced into a never ending loop of a modifying record, The reality of who I am, My voice is not only known by me, but a creation known by man.

What lines of Wilsee Kollie’s “My Many Voices” did you personally connect with?
Wilsee Kollie says that she writes this poem as “a letter to my many voices.” What are Kollie’s many voices? What voices do you have? Do you feel like you have a different personality or way of expressing yourself, depending on which voice you’re using?
Wilsee Kollie refers to “what they call correct” when she talks about the language she was taught in school. Who is the they she is referring to? How do you think these people determine what is considered “correct” or “proper” language?

“Mother Tongue” is an essay by American author Amy Tan, who is the daughter of immigrants from China. Tan’s most famous novel is The Joy Luck Club, a story of the relationships between mothers and daughters in the Chinese American community. In “Mother Tongue,” Tan illustrates how her immigrant mother’s so-called “broken English” affected how her mother was judged and treated by others in the U.S.

Read Amy Tan’s essay, “Mother Tongue” below, and listen to the audio of the essay as you read, if you like. As you read and listen, think about whether your experience with the English language is more similar to Amy Tan’s experience or her mother’s experience.

“Mother Tongue by Amy Tan (full audiobook)'” by Jordan Barclay, YouTube.com

I am not a scholar of English or literature. I cannot give you much more than personal opinions on the English language and its variations in this country or others.

I am a writer. And by that definition, I am someone who has always loved language. I am fascinated by language in daily life. I spend a great deal of my time thinking about the power of language — the way it can evoke an emotion, a visual image, a complex idea, or a simple truth. Language is the tool of my trade. And I use them all — all the Englishes I grew up with.

Recently, I was made keenly aware of the different Englishes I do use. I was giving a talk to a large group of people, the same talk I had already given to half a dozen other groups. The nature of the talk was about my writing, my life, and my book, The Joy Luck Club . The talk was going along well enough, until I remembered one major difference that made the whole talk sound wrong. My mother was in the room. And it was perhaps the first time she had heard me give a lengthy speech, using the kind of English I have never used with her. I was saying things like, “The intersection of memory upon imagination” and “There is an aspect of my fiction that relates to thus-and-thus’–a speech filled with carefully wrought grammatical phrases, burdened, it suddenly seemed to me, with nominalized forms, past perfect tenses, conditional phrases, all the forms of standard English that I had learned in school and through books, the forms of English I did not use at home with my mother.

Just last week, I was walking down the street with my mother, and I again found myself conscious of the English I was using, the English I do use with her. We were talking about the price of new and used furniture, and I heard myself saying this: “Not waste money that way.” My husband was with us as well, and he didn’t notice any switch in my English. And then I realized why. It’s because over the twenty years we’ve been together I’ve often used that same kind of English with him, and sometimes he even uses it with me. It has become our language of intimacy, a different sort of English that relates to family talk, the language I grew up with.

So you’ll have some idea of what this family talk I heard sounds like, I’11 quote what my mother said during a recent conversation which I videotaped and then transcribed. During this conversation, my mother was talking about a political gangster in Shanghai who had the same last name as her family’s, Du, and how the gangster in his early years wanted to be adopted by her family, which was rich by comparison. Later, the gangster became more powerful, far richer than my mother’s family, and one day showed up at my mother’s wedding to pay his respects. Here’s what she said in part: “Du Yusong having business like fruit stand. Like off the street kind. He is Du like Du Zong — but not Tsung-ming Island people. The local people call putong, the river east side, he belong to that side local people. That man want to ask Du Zong father take him in like become own family. Du Zong father wasn’t look down on him, but didn’t take seriously, until that man big like become a mafia. Now important person, very hard to inviting him. Chinese way, came only to show respect, don’t stay for dinner. Respect for making big celebration, he shows up. Mean gives lots of respect. Chinese custom. Chinese social life that way. If too important won’t have to stay too long. He come to my wedding. I didn’t see, I heard it. I gone to boy’s side, they have YMCA dinner. Chinese age I was nineteen.”

You should know that my mother’s expressive command of English belies how much she actually understands. She reads the Forbes report, listens to Wall Street Week, converses daily with her stockbroker, reads all of Shirley MacLaine’s books with ease–all kinds of things I can’t begin to understand. Yet some of my friends tell me they understand 50 percent of what my mother says. Some say they understand 80 to 90 percent. Some say they understand none of it, as if she were speaking pure Chinese. But to me, my mother’s English is perfectly clear, perfectly natural. It’s my mother 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.

Lately, I’ve been giving more thought to the kind of English my mother speaks. Like others, I have described it to people as ‘broken” or “fractured” English. But I wince when I say that. It has always bothered me that I can think of no way to describe it other than “broken,” as if it were damaged and needed to be fixed, as if it lacked a certain wholeness and soundness. I’ve heard other terms used, “limited English,” for example. But they seem just as bad, as if everything is limited, including people’s perceptions of the limited English speaker. I know this for a fact, because when I was growing up, my mother’s “limited” English limited my perception of her. I was ashamed of her English. I believed that her English reflected the quality of what she had to say. That is, because she expressed them imperfectly her thoughts were imperfect. And I had plenty of empirical evidence to support me: the fact that people in department stores, at banks, and at restaurants did not take her seriously, did not give her good service, pretended not to understand her, or even acted as if they did not hear her.

My mother has long realized the limitations of her English as well. When I was fifteen, she used to have me call people on the phone to pretend I was she. In this guise, I was forced to ask for information or even to complain and yell at people who had been rude to her. One time it was a call to her stockbroker in New York. She had cashed out her small portfolio and it just so happened we were going to go to New York the next week, our very first trip outside California. I had to get on the phone and say in an adolescent voice that was not very convincing, “This is Mrs. Tan.”

And my mother was standing in the back whispering loudly, “Why he don’t send me check, already two weeks late. So mad he lie to me, losing me money. And then I said in perfect English, “Yes, I’m getting rather concerned. You had agreed to send the check two weeks ago, but it hasn’t arrived.” Then she began to talk more loudly. “What he want, I come to New York tell him front of his boss, you cheating me?” And I was trying to calm her down, make her be quiet, while telling the stockbroker, “I can’t tolerate any more excuses. If I don’t receive the check immediately, I am going to have to speak to your manager when I’m in New York next week.” And sure enough, the following week there we were in front of this astonished stockbroker, and I was sitting there red-faced and quiet, and my mother, the real Mrs. Tan, was shouting at his boss in her impeccable broken English.

We used a similar routine just five days ago, for a situation that was far less humorous. My mother had gone to the hospital for an appointment, to find out about a benign brain tumor a CAT scan had revealed a month ago. She said she had spoken very good English, her best English, no mistakes. Still, she said, the hospital did not apologize when they said they had lost the CAT scan and she had come for nothing. She said they did not seem to have any sympathy when she told them she was anxious to know the exact diagnosis, since her husband and son had both died of brain tumors. She said they would not give her any more information until the next time and she would have to make another appointment for that. So she said she would not leave until the doctor called her daughter. She wouldn’t budge. And when the doctor finally called her daughter, me, who spoke in perfect English — lo and behold — we had assurances the CAT scan would be found, promises that a conference call on Monday would be held, and apologies for any suffering my mother had gone through for a most regrettable mistake.

I think my mother’s English almost had an effect on limiting my possibilities in life as well. Sociologists and linguists probably will tell you that a person’s developing language skills are more influenced by peers. But I do think that the language spoken in the family, especially in immigrant families which are more insular, plays a large role in shaping the language of the child. And I believe that it affected my results on achievement tests, I.Q. tests, and the SAT. While my English skills were never judged as poor, compared to math, English could not be considered my strong suit. In grade school I did moderately well, getting perhaps B’s, sometimes B-pluses, in English and scoring perhaps in the sixtieth or seventieth percentile on achievement tests. But those scores were not good enough to override the opinion that my true abilities lay in math and science, because in those areas I achieved A’s and scored in the ninetieth percentile or higher.

This was understandable. Math is precise; there is only one correct answer. Whereas, for me at least, the answers on English tests were always a judgment call, a matter of opinion and personal experience. Those tests were constructed around items like fill-in-the-blank sentence completion, such as, “Even though Tom was ______, Mary thought he was -______.” And the correct answer always seemed to be the most bland combinations of thoughts, for example, “Even though Tom was shy, Mary thought he was charming,” with the grammatical structure “even though” limiting the correct answer to some sort of semantic opposites, so you wouldn’t get answers like, “Even though Tom was foolish, Mary thought he was ridiculous.” Well, according to my mother, there were very few limitations as to what Tom could have been and what Mary might have thought of him. So I never did well on tests like that.

The same was true with word analogies, pairs of words in which you were supposed to find some sort of logical, semantic relationship — for example, “Sunset is to nightfall as ______ is to ______.” And here you would be presented with a list of four possible pairs, one of which showed the same kind of relationship: red is to stoplight, bus is to arrival, chills is to fever, yawn is to boring: Well, I could never think that way. I knew what the tests were asking, but I could not block out of my mind the images already created by the first pair, “sunset is to nightfall”–and I would see a burst of colors against a darkening sky, the moon rising, the lowering of a curtain of stars. And all the other pairs of words –red, bus, stoplight, boring–just threw up a mass of confusing images, making it impossible for me to sort out something as logical as saying: “A sunset precedes nightfall” is the same as “a chill precedes a fever.” The only way I would have gotten that answer right would have been to imagine an associative situation, for example, my being disobedient and staying out past sunset, catching a chill at night, which turns into feverish pneumonia as punishment, which indeed did happen to me.

I have been thinking about all this lately, about my mother’s English, about achievement tests. Because lately I’ve been asked, as a writer, why there are not more Asian Americans represented in American literature. Why are there few Asian Americans enrolled in creative writing programs? Why do so many Chinese students go into engineering? Well, these are broad sociological questions I can’t begin to answer. But I have noticed in surveys — in fact, just last week — that Asian students, as a whole, always do significantly better on math achievement tests than in English. And this makes me think that there are other Asian-American students whose English spoken in the home might also be described as “broken” or “limited.” And perhaps they also have teachers who are steering them away from writing and into math and science, which is what happened to me.

Fortunately, I happen to be rebellious in nature and enjoy the challenge of disproving assumptions made about me. I became an English major my first year in college, after being enrolled as pre-med. I started writing nonfiction as a freelancer the week after I was told by my former boss that writing was my worst skill and I should hone my talents toward account management.

But it wasn’t until 1985 that I finally began to write fiction. And at first I wrote using what I thought to be wittily crafted sentences, sentences that would finally prove I had mastery over the English language. Here’s an example from the first draft of a story that later made its way into The Joy Luck Club , but without this line: “That was my mental quandary in its nascent state.” A terrible line, which I can barely pronounce.

Fortunately, for reasons I won’t get into today, I later decided I should envision a reader for the stories I would write. And the reader I decided upon was my mother, because these were stories about mothers. So with this reader in mind–and in fact she did read my early drafts–I began to write stories using all the Englishes I grew up with: the English I spoke to my mother, which for lack of a better term might be described as “simple”; the English she used with me, which for lack of a better term might be described as “broken”; my translation of her Chinese, which could certainly be described as “watered down”; and what I imagined to be her translation of her Chinese if she could speak in perfect English, her internal language, and for that I sought to preserve the essence, but neither an English nor a Chinese structure. I wanted to capture what language ability tests can never reveal: her intent, her passion, her imagery, the rhythms of her speech and the nature of her thoughts.

Apart from what any critic had to say about my writing, I knew I had succeeded where it counted when my mother finished reading my book and gave me her verdict: “So easy to read.”

Tan, Amy. “Mother Tongue.” The Threepenny Review, vol. 43, Autumn, 1990, pp. 7-8, www.jstor.org/stable/4383908. (included on the basis of fair use)

After listening to and/or reading “Mother Tongue,” discuss or journal about these questions:

Amy Tan says that due to her mother’s “broken English,” “people at department stores, at banks, at restaurants did not take her seriously, did not give her good service, pretended not to understand her, or even acted as if they did not hear her.” Have you or anyone you are close to ever experienced treatment like this because of the language that you speak?
Why did Amy Tan’s teachers steer her away from writing and into math and science? Do you think this was the right decision for her teachers to make?
Why was Amy Tan satisfied when her mother read her book and said it was, “So easy to read”? When you write, who do you usually envision as your reader? Do you think it is important to make your writing easy to read for other adult English learners?

Reflective Writing: Your Language Learning Experiences

Now that you have watched “3 Ways to Speak English” and read “Mother Tongue,” think about your own experience with speaking different languages and learning English or Englishes. Write a short reflective essay about your experience with language learning.

Here are some questions you may consider in your essay, though you do not have to answer all of them, and you can include any other information that you like, too:

What languages do you know? How did you learn these languages?
What were your experiences with reading and writing as a child? How do those early experiences with language still affect you today?
What languages have you spoken at home, at school, and with friends throughout your life?
How have others judged you for the languages or variety of English you speak or write?
Do you view yourself as an articulate person in any of your languages? How do you view yourself as a speaker and writer in English?
Do you consider yourself a good writer in any of your languages? How do you view yourself as a writer in English?
Would you use the term “broken English” to describe your English speaking or writing? Why or why not?
Why did you decide to learn English? How do you hope knowing English will help you in your life?

Try to write your reflective essay like a story about your language learning. Include details that will interest the reader and help them empathize with your experiences. You should apply what you already know about the rules of academic English writing, but also feel free to get creative with your writing. You can include samples of dialogue from other languages or varieties of English that you speak, like we saw in “3 Ways to Speak English” and “Mother Tongue.” Merging two languages or varieties of language together in a single piece of writing or communicative act is called code-meshing or translanguaging, and it is a valuable skill that multilinguals often use to communicate more effectively. Feel free to practice code-meshing or translanguaging in your essay to help your reader get a better sense of the multiple languages and Englishes that you know.

This essay will not be graded. Rather, it is a way for your teacher to better understand your past and present experiences with learning languages, including English, and to see a sample of your current English writing to get an idea of what you already can do with your writing and what you will need to work on improving in this course.

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Reflective writing

Learn how to write a reflective text about a learning experience.

Do the preparation task first. Then read the text and tips and do the exercises.

Preparation

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In January I spent three weeks volunteering as an English teacher in my town. I've been thinking about becoming an English teacher for a while so it was a good opportunity to see what it's like. The students had all just arrived to start a new life in the UK and they had a range of levels from beginner to intermediate. They came from a variety of countries and had very different backgrounds and experiences.

For me, the most important thing was the relationship with the students. I was nervous at first and did not feel confident about speaking in front of people. However, I found it easy to build good relationships with the students as a class and as individuals and I soon relaxed with them. It was a challenge to encourage the lower-level students to speak in English, but at least they understood a lot more at the end of the course.

At first, planning lessons took a really long time and I was not happy with the results. Classes seemed to be too difficult for some students and too easy for others, who finished quickly and got bored. I found it was better to teach without a course book, adapting materials I found online to suit their needs. I learned to take extra activities for students who finished early and that was much better.

I still need to continue improving my lesson planning. I would like more ideas for teaching mixed-ability groups and I want to plan the whole course better next time. That way students have a focus for each lesson and a sense of progress and of what they've covered. I'm also going to put more confident students with beginners when they work in pairs so conversation activities give everyone more chance to speak and students can help each other.

Overall, it was a really positive experience and I learned a lot. I've decided that I would like to become an English teacher in the future.

Reflective writing is more personal than other types of academic writing. You can use the first person ( I ... , My ... , etc.) and explain how you felt.
Think about the experience in detail. Explain what went well and what was challenging, and say what you learned in the process.
Short introduction to the situation
Evaluate the most important things about the experience, including solutions to problems
Say what you would do differently next time
Say what you learned overall.
Keep the focus on your learning process and what you will do better in future.

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What was your last challenging learning experience?

Language level

My last challenging experience was learning English,because I live with my parents and sister and I dont have own room,so I must learning in living room and it is so difficult.They are constantly going back and forth and I very rarely have some time for learning in calm.

Hey guys! I've been trying to learn English since I was a teenager. At that time, even though I took classes and studied a little, I don't think I did my best. I wasn't really motivated. A few years later, I'm trying again to regain that knowledge and go further.

I move to London when I was 16 and I joint to college to learn English. At that time I wasn't really focusing well with learning and I never imagined that I would struggle in the future with this language. The challenging that I face nowadays at work place to complete my patient's notes and at the university to understand the subjects. Finding difficult to put into my own words when I read a context and struggling for my assignments. I choose this platform to improve my writing level and stay more focused with my study. Therefore, I decided to spend everyday at least an hour to improve my English level.

Thank you. Lalitha

when I was going to start learning programming 2 years ago, I spent a vast changing process. At first, I didn't know anything about it. actually, something would attract me to it. at that time I was working as a full-time sales expert in a big company. As a result, I didn't have enough time but I decided to start learning for 30 minutes in the morning.

In the beginning, I would take a lot of time to understand the concepts and also much time to review the concepts which I had learned before. Sometimes It was so tedious and frustrating because I would spend a lot of time trying to understand a concept but after a week I would really forget the details. As it turned out, I found out I had to take notes and make a plan to review them every two days.

Another problem was that I was short of time. I couldn't get around to reviewing the notes steadily. none the less I would use all of my free time including weekends and my two days off in a month. but a situation came up to me caused I had two hours of free time a day at work. this happening was a gift for me for my passion and persistence.

I continued this trend for nine months. My mind had become sharper and faster in learning and analyzing new concepts. my mind had nothing to do with one last year. On the one hand, I had fallen in love with this new skill, and on the other hand, I couldn't find in my heart to resign. What it boils down to is that I was wondering whether I stayed on at my job or put my back into my favorite skill in order to become a specialist in it.

To cut a long story short, I decided to resign and study focused for a while. this decision improved my efficiency and made me use my intellectual capabilities to the maximum. It was one of the best gifts that I had ever given to myself. I allowed myself to do what makes me happy and alive and enjoy doing it.

Hello Ensiye,

I just wanted to thank you for your contribution and applaud you for your efforts. I'm so glad it worked out for you.

All the best, Kirk LearnEnglish team

hello Dear Kirk Thanks for your kindness Doing the tasks of the lessons has made my learning process regular I'm glad to be here Best regards Ensiye

My last challenge it was about analyze an international conflict in my major, so I read many books, texts, notes about conflict but isn't easy for me to find information about the topic. Overall it was great, I approve my course with a good grade. (:

Hi everybody. I'm trying to translate my project into English but honestly, it's very hard. I know is better to hire a translator but I want to learn more by translating it. I would like to share the first sentence of my project with you. Is it possible to take a look at it, please? and tell which part is wrong and why? I need to know can you understand it or not. " The global publishing network is a mechanism designed to unite publishers to integrate publishing industry. The network by revolutionizing the publishing process, delivers printed versions of text-based works such as books, articles, and magazines in less than an hour, regardless of the client’s location, and without printing and storing the works beforehand. During this process, if only a few seconds have elapsed since publishing a work in the network, the selling process of its print version starts at such speed. The objective of this mechanism is to remove intermediaries and storehouses, reduce the time of producing and delivering, and provide global access without geographical, cultural, and linguistic barriers. The network also strives to be a global gate for income generation for game, song, and movie companies and producers and sells Blu-Ray versions of their works through this mechanism. The distribution mechanism is the main idea of the network that completes many other features of this project."

Hello aliyaseri,

That sounds like a great idea and I'm sure you'll learn a lot, but I'm afraid we don't correct people's texts.

If you have a specific question about a specific sentence, please let us know.

I started learning English at school, when I was ten. I didn't like this language because i thought it was bored. I didn´t pay attention to the classes so I din't know anything. Now, I have absolutely notion that i should have paid attention. I really started learning English, last year, by myself, because in school, the level of English was already B1 and I was in A1. I started learning randoom things and with that I realize that my main problem was the grammar. I studied all the verb tenses. Right now, I still have difficulties on that but I am improving everyday. I´m going to Turkey next week without anyone that I know and I will spend one week there speaking just in English. Probably that will be a challenge for me but I want to explore my limits. My main problem now is the vocabulary. I have a lack of vocabulary wich doesn't let me maintain a normal conversation. I'm doing my best to pass that but I know it takes time. I'm in the B1 level right, and I'm so happy that I managed to be here. I'm really pround of me.

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My Experience Of Learning Languages

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My Experience of Learning a New Language

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Becoming Bilingual: An Experience That Changed My Life

1 Your Language Experience

“3 Ways to Speak English” by Jamila Lyiscott

Reflective Writing: Your Language Learning Experiences

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My Experience Of Learning Languages

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