Cesar De Leon Pereira
English 110
Written Narrative
Learning a new language in a foreign country can be a challenging and overwhelming experience, especially for a 10-year-old child. The unfamiliar surroundings, cultural differences, and the pressure to quickly assimilate can make the transition difficult. On top of that, having to learn a completely new language, with its own grammar rules and pronunciation, can be a daunting task. It requires patience, dedication, and a lot of hard work, which is unfortunately a particular set of qualities that most children, including myself, do not possess. In the United States, the experience of learning a new language as a child is a common one, especially for those who have immigrated to the country. This is the reality I had to face when my family decided to move from Brazil to New York City.
When we arrived in New York, I was hit by a wave of culture shock. Everything was different, from the food to the language. Growing up in Brazil, I spoke Portuguese fluently and knew little to no English, so the new linguistic barriers were something that I would consider a life changing experience. Unlike before, where my vocabulary was enough to convey my basic needs as well as to allow me to communicate with kids my age, I now was completely impaired from completing what were once mundane tasks. Walking into class for the first time was an incredibly jarring experience. It truly felt like walking into an alien planet for the first time. A foreign language can be enough to disrupt the life of any child, however, it only becomes more chaotic when combined with a cultural difference. Absorbing a new culture is a striking experience that takes a lot of communication and interaction with those around you, which for a kid who has been completely stripped of language parity with his school friends is basically impossible.
As a ten year old, you tend to get more attached to traditional customs, and have a much narrower perspective of the world. In my home town of Vespaziano in Brazil, I had a very close group of friend whom I had know for nearly my entire life, and had strong bonds with most of my family members there. As an adult or at least when you’re older, you are able to ignore and try to overcome some of the challenges you face, as you know of the rewards for which you are struggling for. However, for someone in the 5th grade to simply erase all the familiarity they had with the world around them can be fairly confusing. Luckily though, despite the confusion, children of that age are much more susceptible to adapting to changes, even if in their mind they aren’t able to accept or comprehend it.
The staff at my school decided at the time that it would be better for me not to take a bilingual class, and that I should instead be integrated into a regular English speaking environment. At the time, this meant nothing but pain and a lot of hard work, but with hindsight, it was absolutely the right choice to make. The challenge pushed me in ways that I had never been pushed before, and the struggle that had created a work ethic that would stay with me for life. What made the lack of bilingual assistance in my class so miserable weren’t the work or interactions I had in class, but instead, it was the lack of help I could get from my parents at home. Neither my mom nor my dad were remotely capable of speaking English, which meant that I had to interpret and complete all of my homework by myself. I remember my teacher assigning us a daily reading. I thought that we were supposed to read an entire book every single day, just to find out later that those readings were only supposed to be 30 minutes long. And for those wondering; yes, I read an ENTIRE book every day for two months. Additionally, I had to take my tests in English as well, which meant that even for a subject like math, the most difficult part still managed to be the language itself. It almost goes to show how some skills can simply be undermined when faced with a linguistic barrier.
Though making friends was nowhere near as easy as it was in my home country, my experience with my classmates was oddly a very pleasant one. The kids at my schools were surprisingly understanding and helpful despite none of them being able to speak my native language. I believe that their patience and respect is what allowed me to make such fast progress in my endeavors to learn this new language. However, despite all of that, the feeling of desolation and failure to meet the standards of my class had me feeling powerless before the challenges put before me. Doing my classwork remained difficult, and becoming close with my friends was nearly impossible. Trying to make friends, complete school work and adapt to American culture all while learning English felt like being thrown in a boxing ring against Muhammad Ali while also not having any arms. It was the true definition of weakness.
However, wherever there is powerlessness, there is also an opening for empowerment. The prospect of fully adapting, which once seemed impossible, eventually began to happen throughout my fifth year in school. Through the miserable process of sheer brute force, the unfamiliar words and sounds began to have meaning in my mind. I didn’t take any special courses, nor did I use any alternative methods to help me learn English, but instead, I relied mostly in daily conversation and reading with far more frequency than my other classmates. It was almost like seeing a new color for the first time. My classmates and I were for the first time understanding each other, and I started to absorb the culture that was unintelligible for me in the beginning of that year. Not only that, but I was also able to pass on little pieces of my culture and customs to the other kids in my school. For example, at the end of the year, we had a cultural event at my school, where I was able to bring some Pao de Queijo to the class, which is a traditional snack from the part of Brazil where I’m from. Looking back I still have no idea as to when specifically I became fluent, but all that lingers with me strongly are the emotions and interactions I’ve had before and after the fact.
Until now, I’ve never stopped to think about the bigger importance that my English learning experience represented. To me it always just seemed like an individual experience with struggle and adaptation. However, upon reflection of those events I now can have a true understanding on how communication matters for the development of an individual and the culture around them. By learning English I wasn’t just adding a new language, but instead I was building a bridge that connected my culture to another. What I had done as a mere child was perhaps the most impactful action practiced by humans across centuries. The broadening of my linguistic capabilities allowed me to engage in cultural globalization. I communicated with the people in America in ways that would never have been possible with the limitations of Portuguese. I was not the only one in that situation. Many others were using English as a bridge as well. I got to learn about east Asian, Arabic, Europan, African and American cultures. The English that I had just learned was this beautiful meeting point where all of your perspectives could be shared.
This event made me realize that language is a tool more powerful than any other. It also made me perceive how powerless one truly is without it. With this awakened perception I feel as if I could fully realize the impact of linguistic knowledge and the role that it plays in allowing people to understand one another, and I could also now see how it could even be used as a way to divide and weaken people by making them devoid of this tool.
Neighborhood I first moved to
