It was a while back, I’d say around 8 years ago. Around back then, I didn’t really speak good English because my family and I just moved to the United States 2 years before that. Since we moved into a new country we had to learn a whole new language, and i’m not going to lie, for my mom it was kind of hard for her to learn English because she basically spent her whole life speaking Creole. But as for me and my sister, it was easier for us because we we’re younger and since we had to go to school, we were surrounded by people who spoke English so I guess it was easier for us to pick up the new language.  So this happened around 3rd to 4th grade, and I remember I was in a math class, and one of the kids needed help with one of the math problems so since I understood it, I got up from my seat and tried to help them. At that time, my English was bad but it wasn’t really good either. So since my English was “alright”, the student didn’t really want to trust me helping them because they assumed I didn’t know what I was talking about. So instead of hearing me out, they didn’t even want to attempt listening to me and automatically asked another student for help. This kind of hurt me inside because that made me realized that since I have bad English, I lot of students won’t really trust me when it comes to assignments and help. Also when I see someone struggling or confused and I understand the topic, I feel like I must try and help them because that’s just the way I am.

My experience have been similar to Jamila Lyiscott because one of the things she said in that speech was ” Do not judge me by my language and assume that I’m too ignorant to teach.” These words that she said are so true because you never know how much someone can teach you until you sit down and listen to their words. Their language might not be as good as yours but if you try and understand what they are saying and the meaning behind their words, you might be able to learn something new or they might be able to impact your life someway somehow.