Most of my family came to America around the same time. I was about four years old and my mom was in her late 20s. We all lived in one apartment and it was about 10 of us. We all spoke the same language and it wasn’t English.  When going to school I thought my language was normal for others. I thought we all spoke the same language. But it turned out that we did. No one could understand me. There was no way I could communicate. I didn’t want to participate in class because I was afraid everyone would get confused about what I’m trying to say. I remember this one time my teacher and I were doing a one on one test. She would point to a picture and I had to say what the picture is. I was doing good until she points to a picture of a hammock. In my mind, I knew what the word is because back home we had one. The problem was I didn’t know what they called it in America. I thought there was another name for it. My teacher kept saying, “keep thinking Leon you got it.” I kept saying it a hammock in my mind the entire time but I never said it out loud, so I chose to not answer. I remember this other time I was at a birthday party. All my cousins were there and a few of their friends. My cousins knew I speak English and “broken” English. My cousin told his friend to come to talk to me because they were testing my English. So he came over and we were talking in English and then my cousin came over and I was speaking “broken” English to him and I didn’t realize after they told me. I believe it’s a quick reaction to who we want to speak English to and who we don’t want.

Amy Tan said, “But I do think the English spoken in the family, especially in immigrant families which are more insular and play a large role in shaping the language of the child. And I believe it affected my results on the achievements test, I.Q. tests, and the SAT.” If my family members all spoke English I believe it would’ve been a lot easier for me to pick up on English. My mom picked up English just like how I did by surrounding ourselves with other people who spoke English. She worked at the airport meeting new people and talking to them and she slowly starting speaking English but just not at home. The only time I hear her speaking English is when she’s on a professional call or she’s at her job otherwise it’s only “broken” English.