Every since the beginning of childhood, I have been surrounded by a language barrier. My parents immigrated to America approximately a year before I was born and they did not have as much knowledge of English. My parents have a strong belief that mathematics is a good subject to pursue and master so they had me learn addition, subtraction, multiplication and division as well as memorize the multiplication table before I stated grade school. With this foundation of math already developed, I found comfort in this subject as I struggled with other heavy-English-based subjects, which consisted of almost everything except math: language arts, reading, English, writing, history, and science. As the years passed, English became easier to comprehend as my love of reading also developed, but math was still the easiest for me because it never required me to use a dictionary whenever I come across a term I was unfamiliar with.
The first couple of years in elementary school is where I experienced this language barrier the greatest. My teachers often had this daily vocabulary thing where they would have one vocab word on the board to copy at the beginning of class in the morning along with its definition, part of speech, and an example of how it is to be used in a sentence. Even though these words were on the board every day, there was little meaning in them for me because I never understood the terms. Even though the definition and an example was provided, I was still unable to truly comprehend the word.
I suppose this is what began my interest of have mathematics become one of my future majors. The simplicity of math to me formed a comfort zone for me, unlike the complicity and challenges that continuously arise with the English language. The language of math was easy to understand and the formulas were always logical. To me, math was mostly about building on the basic and only some review was necessary at times. Math was also consistent - the formulas came from theorems so there is never a double meaning to them, unlike the meaning of words that can change depending on how the term is used. Mistakes did not happen as much in math as long as I remembered the correct formula to use in different steps of the problems.
The language barrier created hardships when working on subjects that are heavily based on English usage; however the formulas in math never changed and were easy to decipher, making math a more comfortable subject to pursue.
Prompt #2: Tell us about a quality, talent, accomplishment, contribution that is important to you. What about this quality or accomplishment makes you proud and how does it relate to the person you are?
Every since the beginning of childhood, I have been surrounded by the necessity to develop independence. Th language barrier created by my parents’ immigrant status cause me to struggle to understand my school work alone since my parents were always busy with work one way or another, and were unfamiliar with the English language. However, .the true factor that pushed me into becoming independent was not this barrier but my mother’s sudden announcement of wanting got quit her job and to become a childcare provider. For the time afterwards, where she took classes in the nearby community college and went to Bananas for classes, things did not really change since she was always away just like she was for her job. Near the end of third grade, she finally got her license and some time around fourth grade, she began taking care of the first child that came to the childcare. At fist, I was okay with it but it soon became irritating. Since the childcare was open from seven am to six pm on weekdays, having to listen to cry from early in the morning before school and for hours after I care home, annoyed me. Soon, it began to seem to me as though my mother preferred the kids she took care of at the childcare more than she did me- she was always yelling or glaring at me when I walked around the house, if I created too much noise when closing a door, or zipping up my backpack.
This is when I began to understand that my mother is not going to be close to me even if she was always at home. Her attention was always on the kids and so I began to stop trying to rely on her. She always prioritized the kids in the childcare first by saying that they were not her kids and that if they were to get hurt or something, she would get sued and have to pay a large fine, or she may even lose her license. With that, I began to stop caring about whether my mother was there or not. A new barrier formed and I began to take responsibilities in my own life. I focused on getting what I need to do done so that she can focus on her job.
In a way, my mother’s words about other peoples’ kids being more important gave me a sense of disappointment. I had figured that if she was to stay at home more, then I would at least attain more attention and care; however, that was not the case. Instead, I found that she focused more on her newly attained job and that it changed the environment I was accustomed to. The house that was once spacious because we had little furniture became cluttered with children play materials. The house that was once peaceful became loud. The place where I once found comfort became a place I would like to stay away from as much as possible.
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