How did I learn how to read? That’s a good question, I vaguely remember my mom constantly pushing me to read a book because I would struggle in school a lot due to the fact that I didn’t want to listen in school when the teacher would teach a lesson, I was very distracted at a young age, but to answer the question, my mother has always encouraged me to read since before i went to kindergarten although I didn’t speak early or clearly because I was tongue tied as a child. Even though I was tongue tied, I knew what I was reading. I started out reading the King James Version children’s Bible. King James Version isn’t exactly an easy bible to understand because it consists of Old English, so you can imagine that it wasn’t easy to understand being at an young age of 4. I was guided of course when learning how to read the KJV bible and so you can say reading such a complex book helped me learn how to read. Did I forget to mention that I’m not a fan of reading? I’m going to be honest and say that I don’t like the feeling of not understanding something and having to re-read a sentence multiple times before moving on to the next sentence, so you can say that I have to build on my patience on that part. Even though I wasn’t a fan of reading, I knew I had to do it to do well in school, so I used bettering myself as a motivation to continue reading books if I had to. 

 

In middle school I got into Asian dramas, so since Asian dramas weren’t dubbed back then and I didn’t understand Korean, Japanese, Thai, Filipino, or Hindi, i had to read subtitles. It was hard keeping up with reading subtitles but over the weeks and months of watching dramas back to back I had an epiphany that I was strengthening my understanding of word structures from reading subtitles. I noticed that reading those subtitles helped me read faster while understanding. I wonder if the reason I understood everything was because of what I’m seeing at the same time in the dramas I watched, it could possibly be the reason for my understanding and process of information and I was right. Yes, I do love a book with images because it gives me better visuals but i noticed a book without much images broadens my imagination to a whole new degree, and considering I did art since elementary school and majored in fine arts/visual arts in high school, very descriptive books really helps me create images in my head to understand it better, hence, I’m a visual reader. If there isn’t much description then I’m not interested enough to keep reading, and I can say the same to a book without meaning and depth. So this class is the perfect class because I learn a lesson every Monday and Wednesday because of the depth of the lessons. (No pressure Professor Schmerler you are a natural hehe)   

 

Thinking about it, in life you will always read no matter where you go or where you are, and I learn that lesson everyday.