A Letter To My Past Self English Language Essay

A Letter To My Past Self position Language Es decl beI ability find yourself a bit taken back by reading reader from your future. I checker you are not universe watch by a hidden camera and the solely of a joke. I think you testament agree with me, or rather yourself that education is very important to your, our future. For that spring you are preparing yourself for college. I could enunciate you who you are going to meet and what classes you shouldnt take, tho that wouldnt fair. What I will tell you is that your field of vision will widen. Your brain will hurt and you will collapse many altogether righters. To truth of the matter is that you reach the tools to be successful already. These tools will need to be sharped and taken solicitude of a like any other tool in your garage. Of these tools pen is very important, maybe the close to important of them solely. To understand how to write is a key that will propel in on the route you will begin on. Through its process a nd constant evolution, 1 must embrace writing as an art form and not a chore.Language is a multifaceted tool which we drill to spend to one another. Its defined as a systematic means of communicating ideas or feelings by the determination of conventionalized signs, sounds, gestures, or marks having understood meaning. As the definition suggests its more than just spoken words. Its a head nod, a thumbs up, a smile, braille, hand movements, etc. Pediatricians describe children as sponges to indicate their ability to contemplate from their surroundings. Those of us lucky enough to be raised in a household with multiple nicetys mess have an advantage or disadvantage depending on what we are taught. Institutions such as schools, churches, and the soldiery have their admit set of g all overning rules and behaviors which shape our minds and therefore also shape our usage of dustup. The experiences Ive had in bearingspan shaped my relation mail with language, through empowering and undermining my search for self-actualization.Growing up in a bilingual family affected my speech development as a child, which lead me to mix the two languages instead of crossing them one at a time. The United States is a melting pot of difficult cultures, peoples, religions I believe its what makes this ground so great. Even though the United States does not have an asideicial language, side of meat is predominately used. Of course most might argue that in Florida or Texas, Spanish is more widely used, but thats another government issue for another day. Being of Spanish decent can be disenfranchised and confusing at times. I am of Puerto Rican decedent and was born here in America. My mother being Puerto Rican and my step-father being Guatemalan had issues with what language I was supposed to be taught first toddler. My step-father said I should learn slope first because we lived in America and everyone speaks English. My mother on the other hand wanted me to learn Spanish so that I wouldnt forget my roots. As a child hearing my mother speech production Spanish and my father utter English hindered my communicational development. Thus the language of Spanglish was born. Im sure that Spanglish was being used before I was born, but the fact that I was combining both languages to communicate held me back in some areas. I would place a sentence in English and finish my thought in Spanish. It wasnt that I was doing it on purpose, but my mind took the easy route to finish my thought. If I couldnt find a word in English for something I wanted to say, I would just find one in Spanish and vice versus. That may have worked at home, but it didnt work so well when my Jewish pre-kindergarten teacher couldnt understand me completely. It wasnt that I was not smart enough to be in her class, or develop enough to be in pre-kindergarten. I knew my ABCs, could count to ten and knew the colors of the rainbow. The Hindering factor was that I knew them in Spanis h. My inability to use the English language at that age was going to hold me back in school. I was perchance looking at a disadvantage from the start. My mother was so afraid of the school not accept me in to kindergarten that a summer of hell awaited me. She stopped talking to me in Spanish and English became the predominate language in my home. Being that I was young and a sponge, t didnt take me coherent to learn the English language for my age. I was able to understand and be understood by my English speaking still teachers. That decision that my mom made resulted in another dilemma in my life which I now still deal with.Growing up in a multicultural environment confused me at times and let me to think and believe I was rootless. Am I an American or am I Puerto Rican? Do I feel comfortable speaking Spanish or English? Everyone at school spoke English, my mother once schooled started talking to talk to me in provided English and no one really talked to me in Spanish besides m y cheek grabbing aunts no came to newspaper clipping everyone once in a while. I believed that my roots as my mother do it were slipping outside(a) from me. I felt ashamed for a long time because I think I wasnt Hispanic enough or Puerto Rican enough. Having to switch on language the way I did when I was younger put bump in my road for success. To this day I hate spelling and I rather do math. You could say a some people dont like to spell. That is a true statement, but my inability to master one language at time was very confusing. One question that my grandfather asked me repeatedly when I was younger was, How do you say that in Spanish. One instant that I remember, he was referring to my uncles Nintendo. I had asked him if it was delicately if I could use the Nintendo in English. Even though he understood what I asking, he was vie a mean trick on me and proofing a point to my parents. He told me that if I could tell him how to say Nintendo in Spanish, then I was allowed to play. I had to ran to my father ask him and he told me Nintendo in English is Nintendo (with a Spanish accent) in Spanish. I felt a bit dumb, but I didnt care at the time because all I wanted to do was play Nintendo. Thinking about that time it was rugged for me to have a full conversation with my grandparents without being frustrated. To a degree with was like Malcolm X writing is letters in jail, I know what I wanted say, but I had a hard time saying it in the right language. I eventually took Spanish classes to improve my Spanish speaking skills and talked more with my parents in Spanish to not lose touch with that side of myself.My enlistment in the military was not only culturally shocking, but linguistically shocking as well. Ive recently closed a chapter in life, titled The oceanic corps. It was a life altering experience which I befitted from tremendously. It was a culture shock to say the least(prenominal). I mention this because there were expectations of me which I had no clue of. I was supposed to know these things, about those things, and all that overnight. One of the craziest issues I had was the language. All of my life the floor had been the floor and all of a sudden floor was now the deck. The walls were bulkheads, the windows were portholes and my shirt became my blouse. Now back on my neighborhood if you were a guy and you wore a blouse that you played for the other team, by that I mean homosexual. I slowly realised that the Marine Corps was rooted in Naval traditional and the terminology date back to ship life. After a while verything started to make sense, but that doesnt mean it became easier. I was still being scream at for referring to the deck as the floor while I cleaned it. Another issue in the Marine Corps I had was speaking in the third person. Now that only last for the three months of reboot ring if you ever met a Marine and asked him about the longest time of his life, he or she will problem say Marine boot camp seemed t o never end. I just couldnt understand wherefore I needed to say This recruit or recruit Perez needs to use the head instead of saying Hey I need to use the bathroom. Again those were just traditions that fitted a purpose. Whenever you spoke incorrectly the practice session Instructors made it a point to correct you with physical fitness, with that being said I was one lump and lean recruit by the end. Besides being expected to perform in boot camp and being held to a standard. The rest of my Marine Corps life was one learning experience later on another. I learned that you dont address a Colonial the way you would you home boy back at home in an e-mail. Professionalism is something you need a lot of if you going to survived the arm forces. You are a cut about the rest cream of the crop so that meant if you half ass work wasnt tolerated. Incomplete work, or work poorly accomplish is the same as not doing it at all. Writing professionally wasnt something I was taught, but I learn ed under fire. I would write an e-mail or a respond to question 3 to 5 times and had my peers look it over so I wouldnt get in trouble. That would hinder my workload output, but I wasnt being yelled at anymore for not being professional, not it was about not working fast enough. It used to scare me to know that I would have to write an e-mail and 1000 people would read it. I dreaded replies on incorrect grammar or my use of Spanglish. Yes I did use Spanish on a couple of occasion and that they go over so well. With time everything can be accomplished, and my writing skills became better, I do still try to canvas my work/email/face-book status updates before hitting enter, it just a habit now.My experience with my have culture and cultural language (Spanish), allowed me the understanding needed to embrace the Japanese culture and language. My Marine Corps life has let me contrastive place around the world and Okinawa, Japan is included in that list. I still remember being picked u p from the airport by my superiors and the long drive to grip. Its a mortifying experience driving around in a different country and seeing a different set of people you arent used to seeing. I was trying to read billboards, street signs, and even the menu off of the McDonalds drive through, but everything was Latin to me. Well it wasnt Latin most likely the signs were in Hiragana, Katakana, or Kanji. Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji are 3 forms of writing that the Japanese use. My friends and I would go and interact with the people of Okinawa we didnt like staying on base so we explored the island and what it had to offer. It wasnt easy at first, but the Okinawan people were very accepting of us because we at least tried to learn the language. I carried a Romanized dictionary, to be able to say what we were trying to convey. Even though I know that I was order chicken in English, but the Japanese waitress only knew Japanese. My friend, Wesley would come to the rescue on occasion such as those if I took too long in my dictionary. He had a pocket picture book, which travelers used in different countries to express what that want. He pointed to a picture of chicken and the waitress new exactly what I wanted to order. It amazed me that images can be used to communicate the basic of thoughts. My patience in knowing that I was guest in Okinawa and that I was the one that couldnt be understood helped me better understand the people and culture of Okinawa, Japan.Language has been my double acuteness sword and that if I used correctly and I acknowledged and understood, but if I am careless and foolish with it and it cut you deep than anything known to man. Of course language isnt something you can pick up and sideslip through the air, but you can master this invisible tool. I practice when I speak, read, write, sign, and even tearful my head. It is what I do with my experiences it is what I do with I practices that shape my mastery of it. To quote smarter man than I He who controls the language, controls the word. I believe the word word in his quote means my privileged being, my inner self. To become my best self, I must be fully aware of who I am and take care I can be more. I will not be a prisoner of my own mind, for it is I that hold myself back or lets myself fly.