Author: Alonzo Osorio

There was a time in my life during elementary school where I had to take a SPEECH class. What is speech? It’s a class where you learn how to write, read and speak the English language. Now to some this might not seem as bad as it sounds, to them they actually think it’s helpful. The real problem comes in when you start to see the times where I had to go to take speech class, one during Math class and the other during music class. 

Now how does this relate to the prompt, well since I had to take it during normal class time, I got to skip those classes. Which means I would fall behind when it comes to learning in those subjects. This made me feel different and uncomfortable. Every day for 2 classes, for an hour they would pull me out to come with them. Some students would even start whispering rumors about where I go. To me, it felt like I was being treated for problems that needed to be fixed and that it was making it difficult for me to comprehend. But in reality, we all learn at a different pace, and disrupting that can really take a toll in the future. To make it even worse I had to wait in a room with toys to entertain me until the teacher arrived. While the other kids got to learn and do what normal kids do, I got to play games like fishing and building blocks. This made me feel dumb and empty inside, it always made me wonder if they were there to help or hurt me. It almost made me think that they were doing it on purpose to hurt my education because sometimes it would carry on for another hour. Later on, I would find out that I had no problems communicating with other students during class time, In fact, I thought I was able to understand just as well as they could. 

I remember that even my mother tried to do something about it, she would go every year to tell the speech teacher if it was necessary and she would always respond with the same thing “YES!” They even tried offering a speech class again for middle school, but by that point, my mother had enough.

English is thought of as a major language, a must-know to most of us. It doesn’t matter where you are from, what cultures and backgrounds you come from, here in America we all speak English. The same goes with other countries, they have their own language and their ways of communicating. But somehow America, especially New York City, is well known for its diversity and variety. We hear people speak different languages and see that they come from different places yet, some of us come together and manage to communicate. Also, everyone here in New York City gets the opportunity to learn and succeed. Knowing this we can relate to how we learn through education and learning. As kids, we attend public school, which is the most diverse and open way to get to know others. We come from different parts of the world and come together to learn the same language and have the same education. Having a diverse class prepares us to look at different perspectives and ideas and helps us be more creative with our learning. In the end, It is up to us to find our path and go our separate ways, only to come together and contribute all of the knowledge we have accumulated to build a better future for everyone in this world. 

Outside of school, food can be another important factor in how we communicate in a language we understand. Here in New York, food plays an important role and can even be considered a language.  As a document on the internet states, “Food Culture incorporates our ethnicity, cultural heritage and provides a mechanism of communication with others both externally and within our families and communities.” Food is important to all of us, and when we make a dish that has a lot of meaning to us we make it in a language that only we understand. But once we share, we all end up understanding, just like a language we all start not knowing.