A Story Untold

Mohammed Aladwani

English 107

Ms. Edmiston

Global Change: Focus more on the family, restructure my sentence to be

more influential.

Local Change: I would like to find more synonyms for experiance

Life is defined by events that we lived through which shape us

happy or sad. However, many of our experiences last for a short

while and then we continue on living, so which makes us we want to

experience be more involved in more and morethem. . After all, How much

something an experience lasts defines its value. . Indeed, Every person

has a special place he calls home only because it carries a lot of memories

and experiences in its As I see it, An excellent example is learning a

language to change how your mind worksfolds.. Somewhere close to home

to me ,in the amount of experiences and wisdom , is the family home in Fort

Collins, Colorado. Sadly, this fact was absent from me until I learned English.

As it appears, experiencing a new environmentLearning a new language is

about getting somewhere good in life and expanding your horizons.

I will dwell more on this concept once I describe my English learning

experience, and how it was beneficial to me.

 A Story Untold

The day I decided to study English abroad is one my life marks. I

decided to endeavor the journey while having the hopes of a shining future

in mind and the will to achieve my goal at heart. When I first arrived to

Colorado, I noticed a huge difference in the scenery. It was there that I saw

my first snow fall. However, it was very hard to live in a place where I knew

no one and could not speak its language properly. Consequently, I felt very

lonely and isolated. Therefore, I invested most of my days practicing what I

studied at night in my small apartment. I despised living alone, because I

was used to living with a family in a big house. So, I made a strong decision. I

decided that from that moment until I am proficient in English I will live with

an American family, in order to test my tolerance and practice my English.

Indeed, living with a family was very helpful to my English and to my

adaption to the place and the culture.

The day I decided to study English abroad is one my life

marks. Then, I had many reasons to study English. Being able to get

a job easily, since the job market has been globalized, and that it is

very helpful in daily life are on my valid reasons list. However, I had

some excuses that could hold me back from my decision. For

example, My vocabulary was very limited at that time so I had no steady

ground to stand on. Good for me, that my father convinced me to study

abroad by saying, Knowledge is priceless and it is the basis of money,

reputation and social status. Those words hit me hard and gave me a strong

push. Also, it came to my mind that being able to speak two languages is
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very special. These were the thoughts that brought me all the way to the

U.S.

Thinking of what my father said, I decided to endeavor the journey

while having the hopes of a shining future in mind and the will to achieve my

goal at heart. It was very hard to live in a country where I knew no one and

could not speak prober English. I could only understand the context of a

conversation by the expressions on people faces, otherwise I would be very

confused. So, I tried to communicate using body language, or the small

vocabulary I defined my ability to communicate by. Consequently, I felt very

lonely and isolated., Therefore, I invested most of my days practicing what I

studied at night. I despised living alone, since I was used to living with a

family. So. I made a strong decision. I decided that from that moment until I

am proficient in English I will live with an American family, in order to test my

tolerance and practice my English. Indeed, living with a family was very

helpful to my English and to my adaption to a new society.

For starters, I was not able to adopt to an American lifestyle

when I first came through their door into their big house. They had

different habits, phrases and interpretation skills but they had their

arms wide open. For example, I started hearing bad stuff being said to the

same members of the family which was unnatural to my culture. Then, I

heard them say bad things about religion which was very hurtful to me and
 A Story Untold

and not easy to process. They were not Christians only by name since they

did not practice Christianity. Consequently, I approached the family and told

them how hurtful it is for me to hear these kinds of stuff being said, and they

were nice enough to respect how I felt. Then, being able to have a

conversation became easier and I found myself comfortable again. The

family greeted me with friendly smiles and kind words. They treated us with

kindness and respect as if we were their children, which helped me transition

into the new place. While living with them I found friendship among the other

two international students. Sergei, who was from Russia but was very

friendly, and Son from Cambodia he didnt stay with the family for long but

he was very nice also. The impacts of the of place were plentiful. I learned

how to depend on my self. I started doing my bed, washing my clothes and

sometimes I cooked for the family on what they called International day,

where the mother of the family spins the globe and chooses a country to

cook a famous dish from. One day she span the globe and her finger landed

on Kuwait. So I cooked one of our most famous dishes in Kuwait the

Machboos. We all felt connected to each other under the roof of the house

and the nurture of the family.

Staying with them, had a profound impact on my proficiency.

As a new day passed, I found myself learning more and more due to

the welcomness of the place and its diversity. So, every time I misspoke a

word or made a grammatical error, they the father of the family

 A Story Untold

corrected me ,not out of contempt but, out of kindness that I noticed

impeded in his kind smile. That was very helpful to me. Also, I was able

to depend on them with whatever I needed for my daily lifeThey were trying

to indulge me into American culture, they took us to see fire works on 4th

of July, American history museums and to local .theaters, which became

something like a tradition to me now. TheyEveryone in the house gave me

faith in myself, which extremely helped mee. in cConversing in my

second language in a constant and coherent voice required patience

and faith in myself, which the family helped me obtain. For instance, a lot of

bilingual people who I knew were able to write very well but could not speak

with enough confidence to be understood, they were able to say very little

because they were afraid of not being able to be understood. Incidentally.

Incidentally, I started to enhance my Academic English by reading

and learning.

I started focusing on an another important concept in English

which was learning and utilizing Academic English. Academic writing

has different use of vocabulary and structure so it was not very

similar to what was spoken or what I learned with the family. A good

example, is not being able to use simple slang like gotta instead of I have

to go. FurthermoreAlso, learning how to write academically is very

important to my career as an international student who wants to

study Engineering. With the family, my writing was at 6th grade

 A Story Untold

leveldecent, as I was told. Whenever, I wanted to submit an assignment to

the ESL I attended, the mother of family reviewed it and helped me edit it. S

o, when the mother of the family knew, I was having a hard time

writing she told me no one can write before he can read so she

suggested that I read one of her favorite books 1984. I found the

subject interesting but the language was hard for me at that time

but I was able to finish reading the novel ,in three short days with a

dictionary at my side, due to the constant support I got from the family. I

circled whatever word I found interesting and put it in a small

notebook, as the father of the family suggested I do. He was a hardworking

man, he had dyslexia but was able to finish school and learn how to speak

Spanish. So he only was able to give me advice. After finishing the book, I

noticed a significant enhancement in my writing abilities, specially

the use of structure and vocabulary.

The family were fond of animals. The mother used to work in an animal shelter for 15

years. Thats where they got their dog CoCo from. He was a big dog that liked playing outside.

Every day when I came back from the English language school that I was attending, I would

expect to run toward me and he always did. And I always gave him a treat. However, that was

not the case the first time I came by the house alone. He started to run towards me as soon as I

stepped in the yard. I then quickly locked the yards door and hid behind it until the Mother of

the family came out and assured me hell not bite. As time went by, I noticed that I became more

animal friendly. All due, to the family pet. One day the mother of the family suggested that I go
 A Story Untold

and help out in the animal shelter where she used to work. I went there with her and helped feed

the animals and played and petted them. I felt so happy among dogs that I even adopted one, I

named him Sparky because he always liked to play but it didnt last for long because my flight

home was around the corner since I was about to graduate from the ESL school and could not

take him back with me. I talked to the family and they wanted to keep him.

Living with the family is an experience that I benefited much from. It was very beneficial

to me in terms of language, culture exchange, Philanthropy and being Self-Dependent. I

definitely hope to experience indulging myself in another culture again to learn a new language

and to develop myself furthermore. I still see myself as a part of their family. They still invite me

for Christmas every year but unfortunately Im usually not in the U.S at that time. My language

improved, my mentality changed and I learned how to function properly as an adult. I left their

house with a better me. I still send them Christmas cards every year thanking them for having

me.

To conclude, every experience has it ups and downs. For this experience the downs were

lost in a sea of ups. I would encourage any close friend of mine to go through what I call the

pilgrimage of cultures which is to submerge your self in another culture while living in a society

that upholds that culture. A change of environment is always enlightening to the mind. I lived

with the family for six months but those six months were more than enough to change who I

was.

Is my essay focus correctly oriented?