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Santiago Bermudez

Dr. Smith

ENG 101 B24O

September 27, 2017

Easygoing

Growing up I never really liked school and never found it interesting. One class that I

never found interesting was English class because it was always boring. I feel that reading and

writing is viewed differently depending on the person and it can definitely have an effect on

someone, and change someone. I also think that everyone has someone who influenced their

literacy throughout their years growing up. Growing up I learned two languages, which were

Spanish and English. My mom is from Colombia so at home I only speak Spanish and at school I

speak English. In my childhood I learned two languages because it is said to be beneficial later

on and youll have more opportunities when applying for jobs. My literacy story isnt all that

interesting because I never really had a problem learning English or Spanish.

One person I do think that influenced me is my mom because she helped me with my

literacy throughout my childhood. Obviously I learned the Spanish language through her because

she spoke to me in Spanish since thats her primary language. She helped me improve my

Spanish by reading books to me. I remember when I was a little boy she would come with a thick

hard covered book which had a ton of short stories to choose from. She made sure she did this

often to improve my Spanish language. Which one do you want me to read? she would say in

Spanish of course. Doesnt matter I would say back and she would just turn to a random page

and start reading. Another little thing I remember she did was that she would make me read

sometimes and she would also put her finger where she was reading to make sure that I could
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follow with her. I think this helped me in learning Spanish because, I saw how words were

spelled and I heard how they were correctly pronounced by her reading them to me. At the same

time I was also learning English by going to school everyday where thats what everyone spoke.

I adapted and learned the English language pretty easily because I dont remember ever having

trouble with it. This made me improve on both languages.

Other people you can say also had an influence on me and my literacy is my English

teachers throughout the years. Even though I never liked English class, I still learned a few

things. They made sure I learned English properly and knew how to write it and read it well.

They basically have taught me everything I know about English until now and have helped me

with my mistakes along the way so they are definitely people who have influenced me in a

positive way. Both my mom and my English teachers throughout the years have influenced me

positively about the way I feel about reading and writing, which is why Im confident with both

English and Spanish. Another thing I remember as I started growing up is that since I spoke

English a lot more than Spanish I started noticing that I was having trouble speaking Spanish

fluently as I used to. I would forget some words or couldnt think about the word I needed to say

but thats because I dont speak Spanish as mush as I do English. Overall, I had people who

influenced me in a positive way throughout my childhood and helped me learn both the English

and Spanish language.

Like Ive probably said already Ive always dreaded English class because it was never

interesting to me. I think what made me grow this hate towards English class was throughout my

school years growing up where they would make us read books that werent interesting and I had

no fun reading. They would also make us write poems and different things that I never liked

because its something I never found interesting. Im not that creative so doing poetry was
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something I always hated and if a book wasnt something I liked or found intriguing then I

would never read it. But despite how some of us felt they forced us to read and write about these

books that they chose. I remember throughout elementary school during the summer they made

us read and write assignments about at least two books. This was something I never looked

forward to because as a kid you didnt want to do any schoolwork during the summer but we had

to. I would always leave it to the last week and if it werent for my mom I wouldnt have

completed the assignment. I remember she made me sit on the couch with the book and take

away my phone until I read some chapters. I was a stubborn kid so I would always find

something else to do than read like staring at the ceiling, or I would even fall asleep and not read.

I would do anything but read a book and write about it. Its something I never liked and still dont

enjoy doing.

Thats just me though and I know other people really enjoy reading and writing. I believe

that reading and writing can definitely change someone and have an affect them. Some people

use reading or writing to escape from reality. They can be going through something hard and the

only way to fully express themselves and escape what they are going through is by reading or

writing. Some people find reading and writing as a way to have peace and quiet. Obviously that

isnt the case for me but that just shows how it can be different for others. Reading and writing

can definitely change someone by changing the way they feel or look at something and it can

affect them too by changing their mood and the way they feel. Thats what I believe reading and

writing can do to someone, even though I dont think reading and writing has ever had an effect

on me.
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Overall Ive never had any problem learning both English and Spanish growing up which

differs from Susan G. Madera as she had a rough time learning English during her educational

years because she had an accent, but she persevered and came out on top and successful.