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Laura Perez

Dr. Smith

ENGL 101 2COB

June 15, 2017

Bad Experiences in Writing and Speaking English

Speaking and writing are two basic things that once we have learned them, we just do

them automatically. I have had bad experience and difficulties in both writing and speaking

because English is not my first language. I had to face some problems mostly in my speaking

because I am afraid to pronounce words the wrong way or say something backwards since my

first language is Spanish. I have to think in Spanish what I want to say and then translated it into

English in my brain, so sometimes my sentences do not make sense. Speaking English was a

problem to me because it is my second language. One day I was working and a guy walks in the

store and as he was asking me questions he looked at me and said Are you from Los Angeles?

I said No I am from El Salvador as he answered I knew you were not from New York

because you have an accent that made me feel bad and I told him but at least you understood

everything I said and he walked away. So now every time I speak I have that fear that people

are going to make fun of me or ask me the same question. Writing and speaking English had

some obstacles for me that took a while to overcome.

To me, writing in English is the most difficult thing in my life; it stresses me out really

easily. When I was in my country, I used to enjoy writing long paragraphs because I was very

good at it and writing became like a hobby to me. However, once I came to the United States,

everything changed. Writing in the United States is very difficult because the words have to be

very organized and if I misplace one word, the sentence will not flow and the reader will have

difficulty reading the writing. Every time I have a writing assignment, I have to think a lot on
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how to start because I just get stuck at the beginning of the paper. Its like if I have to prepare

myself for a long time when writing a simple 3-4 pages essay.

Writing has become a problem to me because I run out of ideas and words, and at the end

I do not know what to write. My worst nightmare in high school was that I had to write a

research paper. The paper had to be at least ten pages long and when I heard the teacher say that,

I started crying because I knew that writing is one of my weakness and the only thing I was

worry about was that how was I going to extend the research paper to ten pages. When I started

to write my paper, I asked my friend if she could revise it because she is very good at writing.

Once she started reading my paper, she started to correct things and I knew the whole thing was

wrong. After she finished, I changed all the mistakes she had found. Later that day, I asked a

very nice teacher that I had, if she could please revise my paper because I wanted to do a good

job and not only that but to get a good grade. She decided to help me so I used to go to her

classroom before classes every day; I was there at 7am. She helped me so much that I got an A

on the paper and thanks to her I am now in college trying my best to keep going and succeed.

That reminds me of the essay My Favorite Teacher where Thomas L. Friedman recalls

his journalism teacher, Hattie M. Steinberg, who was one of the toughest yet best teachers he had

in journalism. He talks about how she helped him to become the person he is now because they

had a relationship that was not only from teacher to students but they were really good friends.

She not only helped him in that, but she also taught him how to be a good journalist and she

introduced him to the New York Times. When Hattie passed away, he was so upset because he

never published that column when she was still alive (Friedman 104) I hope that doesnt

happen to me because I will be upset too. I have to thank the people who at least had helped me

in my weakness at some point. I can relate to Friedman because we both had a teacher who
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helped us out with something we could not achieve alone and thanks to them we learned what we

know. I cant do things alone; I need a person to help me out and to show me the light where I

cannot see it like Friedman said These Fundamentals cannot be downloaded. You can only

upload them, the old-fashion way, one by one, in places like Room 313 at St. Louis Park High

(104). Only with the help of those who wants to see me being successful I can succeed in life.

Writing problems could be solved by being advised and getting some tips from other

people but when it comes to speaking is a whole different story. Speaking a second language is

very hard because I have to speak a language that I have never heard before. When I was little,

my parents taught me to speak by repeating small words, that way I could repeat and memorize

the words. As I grew, my speaking grew too because I started learning new words and using

complete sentences. After I learned the language I felt good because everyone spoke the same

language and I could communicate and understand it. But suddenly my parents decide to change

their lives without thinking that the language was going to be a problem and it could affect

everyone.

When my mother told me that I was going to come to the United States I felt happy

because I was finally going to be with my family but I never thought about how my life was

going to be affected and what impacts I was going to face. I got here and I had to go to school,

when I got there everyone stared at me because I looked different than them. The teacher asked

me to introduce myself and I was staring at him saying no English. He told me to sit down and

I kept looking at him because I had no clue of what he was saying to me. Luckily, a girl knew

Spanish and she said dice el maestro que te puedes sentar. I was surprised because at least

someone knew the language I was familiar with. For a month I was in all my classes as a listener

because I was not able to speak, but I started reading books and the words I did not know I used
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to translate them to Spanish. My friend, the girl I met in my first class, started trying to correct

me when I was pronouncing something the wrong way but she was also learning the language so

it was not that much of help. When I started learning the language, I remember the first thing I

learned was May I go to the bathroom? I still do not know why that was the first thing I

learned but it helped me a lot.

I am sure I am not the only person who has been through this situation because many

people have the same problem as I did at the beginning. For example Frederick Douglass who

was an African American abolitionist who was born as a slave (and as we know slaves were not

allowed to get and education so they could not read or write) but he was an intelligent man

because he started to grab his mistresss children books that they had from school. He used to do

it when she was not at home because one day she caught him trying to learn and he got punished

for doing that. But Douglass did not care and he decided to learn how to read and speak English

at whatever cost because he wanted to be better in life and change his lifestyle. After many years

of trying by himself he finally succeeded how to write. He did not care about how many

obstacles he had to face to achieve what he wanted to achieve but he kept pursuing his wishes

until he achieved them. Douglass as well as me had trouble speaking and writing, although he

had a totally different situation, both of us have that in common and we did not gave up until we

achieved our goals.

Having bad experiences and trouble to learn how to properly speak or write is frustrating,

because I feel that I do not belong in that place and it is necessary to learn to succeed but those

obstacles that I face in life are the ones that help me to motivate myself to do better until I

achieve my goals. There are also people in my life that help me make the situation easier and to
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show me some ways of how I can do things better. Writing and speaking are two things that are

very important and I have to learn it no matter what because it is part of my daily life.
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Works Cited

Douglass, Frederick, Learning to Read and Write.

http://www.gibbsmagazine.com/leraning%20to%20read.htm, pp 1- 4.

Friedman, Thomas L. My Favorite Teacher. Models for Writers (12 ed.), edited by
th

Alfred Rosa and Paul Eschholz, Bedford St. Martins, 2015, pp. 102104.