I had no idea I was moving to the US. My dad moved to NYC when I was 13 and I stayed in Ukraine with my mom. So, one day my mom told me that we are going to visit my dad and I thought âwow, so cool I am going to see NYCâ but I had no idea I was leaving my county forever. I think I can relate to Linscott’s and Tanâs experience. I âmovedâ here at 14 and I didnât speak English at all. All I knew was how to say âheyâ. I remember my first year in middle school, in this country. Honestly, I can say it was the worst year. I realized that kids can be very mean. I remember there was one boy that used to make fun of me because I didnât talk to my classmates and I could not say anything when someone would ask me something and he would say I am stupid. When I was trying to ask them a question about homework or an assignment they would make fun of how I say/pronounce things and make a fake sound of my accent. Since than moment, I started to be ashamed of my accent and I donât like to talk to a crowd because I think they will make fun of my accent. Sometimes people ask me where I am from and I always take it as an insult. Well, I won’t say much about it but I was sad about this and I wanted to go back to my country so much and I thought that I hate the English language and I am never going to understand or speak English. At some point, I realized I should be stronger than this and If I want to stay here and have a bright future, I have to do something about this. So, I started to watch more movies and read books, it helped. It’s been 5 years since I came here, I think, I know English, but I still struggle to explain my thoughts because I know much more in my language than in English. So, I really understand this quote:â that is because she expressed them imperfectly her thoughts were imperfectâ Something I feel like I want to say so much but I just canât because I donât know much and my thoughts are in Russian and I think It would be much easier if I can understand English as good as Russianâ. Even now I feel like this paragraph could have been better if only it was in my language.Â
About
This OpenLab site accompanies Jackie Blain’s ENG 1101 course for Fall 2020 which is part of the First Year Learning Community “Game On, Python!” The Course Materials are here (Assignments, Resources, How-to Videos) as well as the Class Discussion blogs. We’re all about writing in multiple digital and analogue situations, for multiple purposes… and investigating and talking about issues by asking questions. Lots of questions.
To get in touch with Prof Blain, either drop me a text on our Slack channel or email me at DBlain@citytech.cuny.edu.
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image credits
Buzz Lightyear photo: Brett Kiger
Lightbulb: Announcements page 9/8/20
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Ursula C. Schwerin Library
New York City College of Technology, C.U.N.Y
300 Jay Street, Library Building - 4th Floor
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