Famous philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein once said, "The limits of my language mean the limits of my world." Bilingual education was a disadvantage during my childhood. As generic as it may sound, the language barrier is easily the biggest challenge and hurdle of my life,however, I have enjoyed the language barrier before me and used it to learn more about the American culture and myself in a country that offered me a new life.
My dad day in and day out struggled to obtain a permit that allowed me to reside here in the US, once he got it, he took me to live with my aunt to Dallas and he returned to Houston, it was the first time that I separated from my whole family. When I moved here, I knew a few words of English, but I couldn't speak or understand what people said to me. I felt so bad because I couldn't ask in the store for help, I couldn't read warning signs. One day I was walking in the school hallway, when I suddenly heard a teacher asking me to take off my jacket, I understood that she wanted me to unzip it, so I unzip it, she told again to take it off, her class that was also in the hallway stared at me weird. I felt so embarrassed.
During the first days, I came back from school exhausted so that I had to take a rest for a while, stretching myself on the bed. For all the time, I strained every nerve in order to understand what the people were saying and why they were laughing. Constantly having to deal with unspoken rules and new physical surroundings made me feel alienated and tensed. Later on I realized that goals merit hard work if you really want to reach them. I was tired of non-being able to communicate, to show my feelings and thoughts to the others or just simply ask for a pencil in the classroom.
The goal was clear,learn English was the only thing that I had in my mind and in order to achieve it, I needed to study hard and ask for help. So I started asking classmates for help when I struggle with a word or phrase, at first teachers scolded me because they thought that I was just talking to interrupt the class, but later on they knew my case and they became more patient with me. At home stacks of magazines and children's books filled the floor of my room, I read a different magazine every week day and a book during morning weekends. When I watched movies, I turned on the subtitles.
After all that hard work I started understanding others well enough that I started to communicate with people. Finally I would like to say that I broke the language barrier and that now I can speak English freely. The language transformation was a long process but I did it.
My dad day in and day out struggled to obtain a permit that allowed me to reside here in the US, once he got it, he took me to live with my aunt to Dallas and he returned to Houston, it was the first time that I separated from my whole family. When I moved here, I knew a few words of English, but I couldn't speak or understand what people said to me. I felt so bad because I couldn't ask in the store for help, I couldn't read warning signs. One day I was walking in the school hallway, when I suddenly heard a teacher asking me to take off my jacket, I understood that she wanted me to unzip it, so I unzip it, she told again to take it off, her class that was also in the hallway stared at me weird. I felt so embarrassed.
During the first days, I came back from school exhausted so that I had to take a rest for a while, stretching myself on the bed. For all the time, I strained every nerve in order to understand what the people were saying and why they were laughing. Constantly having to deal with unspoken rules and new physical surroundings made me feel alienated and tensed. Later on I realized that goals merit hard work if you really want to reach them. I was tired of non-being able to communicate, to show my feelings and thoughts to the others or just simply ask for a pencil in the classroom.
The goal was clear,learn English was the only thing that I had in my mind and in order to achieve it, I needed to study hard and ask for help. So I started asking classmates for help when I struggle with a word or phrase, at first teachers scolded me because they thought that I was just talking to interrupt the class, but later on they knew my case and they became more patient with me. At home stacks of magazines and children's books filled the floor of my room, I read a different magazine every week day and a book during morning weekends. When I watched movies, I turned on the subtitles.
After all that hard work I started understanding others well enough that I started to communicate with people. Finally I would like to say that I broke the language barrier and that now I can speak English freely. The language transformation was a long process but I did it.
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