Growing up as an immigrant child in the United States with little to no knowledge of the English language wasn’t very easy. I had to adjust to a new lifestyle and the language barrier between me and Americans. Adjusting to the American lifestyle and language confused me as a little girl. I had no idea why I was forced out of the way I was already used to living. It was so much harder with the children around you making fun of the way you pronounced certain words, or said certain letters. It made me despise going to school.
After attending school for kindergarten my teachers realized I had a lot of trouble with reading and they thought I didn’t know how to read at all. I’ve only ever been able to read in Spanish because it was my first language, but even so I still wasn’t able to read it very well. It hurt knowing all of the other kids were getting high reading scores and moving onto the next reading level for our grade, yet I wasn’t able to get past a few sentences. I struggled a lot with self confidence because of my inability to read as well as my classmates and I often got picked on because of it. I felt like there was something wrong with me, like maybe i was too stupid and thats why i found it difficult to read.
My kindergarten teacher had even told my mom that she thought It would be best if I were held back a grade because I wasn’t able to read anything. I vividly remember going to my aunt’s apartment crying to her after finding out what my teacher had told my mom. It felt like even my own teacher didn’t want me in class, I felt like I wasn’t good enough. I know that wasn’t the case now but as a child I was angry and hurt about the situation and I was just thinking of the worst.
My aunt had a big impact on the development of my reading today. My mom was going to let me get held back a grade because she didn’t know what else to do since she had no money to afford a tutor to help me with my reading, but my aunt had convinced my mom to tell my kindergarten teacher to let me move on to the next grade along with my other classmates under the condition that she would help me with my reading. My mother came from el salvador and never had a proper education so she wasn’t able to help me with my reading, but my aunt could. My aunt had come to the United States when she was a teen and finished highschool here so she knew how to read and write very well in english.
A specific moment that impacted my reading today was when my aunt gave me an old kindergarten textbook of my cousins with a bunch of short stories to practice reading. Every night I would go to my aunt’s apartment and beg her to read the book with me,but she was often busy with work so I usually read by myself. Reading everyday started feeling like a chore to me but when I read with my aunt I loved it. She really knew how to bring a story to life. My aunt would always tell me my reading would improve if I practiced everyday,and so I did. I would read every short story in the book every night and I never found myself getting bored with any of them. Each story had my full and divine attention, whenever I would read It felt almost as if I were in the story. At first it was difficult to pronounce or sound out a lot of the words on my own, but I found reading them by myself to be a lot easier since I didn’t feel the pressure of someone being next to me listening to how awful my reading was and criticizing it. I noticed the more I read everyday, the more my reading improved.
Eventually I was able to read in english by the second grade, and even went on to have one of the best reading scores in my grade. I felt such a moment of triumph whenever I got called on to read in class and I was finally able to read a full page. It felt good putting an end to all my classmates’ jokes about my bad reading. It was a huge accomplishment for me. After learning how to read, a new door opened for me, a new profound love for books. The first book I bought after my accomplishment was a goosebumps book. It was a series I always wanted to read after I learned how to because of the scary stories my cousin would read from the series. Although I think reading goosebumps might have been responsible for me later on forming a love for horror books and films.
Reflecting on my experience I realized the importance of knowing how to read and how much it can help people in their daily lives. Many immigrants who have come to the United States to this day still do not know how to read, but I’m very grateful that I was given the opportunity to learn how to and I hope one day they will be given that opportunity too. I’m glad I had such a caring person in my life like my aunt who supported me throughout my childhood and motivated me to read. I feel like if my aunt were never there I would have never gotten the push I needed to read more and improve. Sadly my aunt is not with me anymore but I know she wishes the best for me and the memory of her giving me that textbook and taking her time to read it with me will always be a special moment between me and her that I’ll cherish forever.
