Renaldo Stevens
ENG 1121
Professor Kim Liao
Literacy Narrative

What is literacy? I believe everyone has an idea of what literacy is even without having the official definition. I am not an English scholar but I do know how significant literacy is to our everyday life, our growth and our society. To put it simply, literacy is what allows me to understand how important literacy is for my personal development and how much it means to society. According to the official definition from google of literacy: Literacy is the ability to read and write. I believe literacy is a lot more than just reading and writing. In my opinion, literacy is the ability to read, write, speak, listen and understand at a level that enables people to communicate and be understood easily in society. Therefore without literacy, the world as we know it today would’ve never been possible if it wasn’t for inventions and experiments in the past which we study and understand in order to build on it to make our society better. Throughout my life, I’ve encountered a lot of different experiences with literacy. I have experience with literacy conversing with my family and friends in Jamaica where I was born and where I started school and learn my version of English. I also used literacy when I started developing my love for cars and cooking. Also when I moved to the United States the literacy was somewhat different but similar at the same time compared to what I was accustomed to.
Growing up in Jamaica the dialect and the diction used around the country is a bit different. I grew up in the rural area of the country which 100% of the people will speak a broken form of English which we call Patois while in the urban areas the residents there speak more of a mixture half proper English and half Patois. Most of the people in the rural area where I live couldn’t read or write so most times I had to help them complete forms for doctor etc. I went to one of the highest rated school in the country located in the urban area where I learned all about English and how literacy is important. We spoke in half English half Patois but we had to write incomplete proper English. I believe that from those moments my literacy was at a high point because I could speak and understand Patois, half and half English then write in proper English. In those times I use to believe that every English is completely the same but at one point I realize that the English we use in Jamaica is the British English and that the American English is a little different.
My love for cooking started when I got a chef book for my 9th birthday in which I discovered a lot of beautiful looking dishes. Reading the book understanding the measurements of ingredients and timing of how long each food should take in order for it not to burn. I read, understood and analyze what it would take to make each dish. With the help of my grandmother after a few tries sometimes I learned how to make complete dishes. None of this would’ve been possible if I wasn’t able to understand what was being described in the book. My love for cars developed because I was always around my uncle’s mechanic shop working on numerous cars learning about the engine drivetrain and how the car runs. While being in the shop I handled most of the paperwork and sometimes explain what the customers from the urban areas or from foreign English speaking countries are saying wrong with the car to him because he mostly only understood Patois and wasn’t good with reading and writing at all.

When I moved to the United States, New York City I realize how completely different literacy was and how people react to each other. I saw signs with a lot of different languages I have never seen before, people communicating in different languages at first it was very uncomfortable because I wasn’t used to it but I was very confident in my English. When I started school I realize that the pronunciation and the spelling of words I knew was a lot different from what I was accustomed to. I always hated reading in school because I know I would’ve been judged therefore I started researching the difference between the English I knew and the English that was being used here. I started reading a lot and watching interviews and learned a lot about how to pronounce, read and write in the English being used. overtime completely understood and was even able to speak thoroughly without even an accent. On the streets of New York City walking with my father, he speaks good enough English he reads well also but some people once they hear an accent they automatically decide to judge instead of trying to understand. I do stand up for him sometimes but he tries his best to get his point across and it is delivered good enough for anyone to understand. Sometimes I do speak up for him to clearly explain certain things. The way we communicate with each other is in Patois which is our native language but in public when speaking to others, we use proper English because we believe it is more appropriate. Throughout my daily life, I’ve seen a lot of others struggle with speaking and reading and how judgemental people are towards them.
With all these experience I had with literacy it helped me a lot today in school with my writing, speaking, and understanding of the English language. I believed that as a result of my brilliance of literacy it helped me a lot to understand and pass the majority of the Spanish courses in school which I can speak and understand somewhat. Throughout high school and college, I’ve learned a lot more about literacy, it’s concepts and what makes it so important to our everyday life. With the literacy skills I have developed over the years, it made me a lot more confident in my writing and each time conversing with other people hearing how they talk to each other gives me a different perspective of what life could be like if literacy was nonexistent. I one day hope to write a book about my life experiences or instructions in order to use a product I will invent one day. Also using all the aspects of literacy I have learned in order to deliver one of the best pieces of writing or maybe one day to motivate people with an accent or who is afraid to speak up because they will be judged, in order to show them that without them the world would not be the same therefore they should try and be more open with their diction and vocabulary because we can all learn a lot from each other.