Elizabeth Spink Professor Jan Rieman English 1101 February 11, 2014 Second Language In this piece I am trying

to explain how I learned a second language since nothing from my early years stood out. In my opinion learning a new language is similar to learning English as a child so I tried to explain that comparison in this memoir. Since Im not doing a memoir from my early childhood hopefully it will be a little more descriptive! I know its a little choppy but I was just putting my thoughts down. As I thought about my childhood and literacy, nothing stood out to me. I could only remember little times here and there when my parents would read to me or I would enjoy reading. Every year starting December 1st I would read a book up until Christmas with my mom each night. I also remember sometimes writing in a diary which I loved doing because I wanted to remember my life. I wrote a lot in it when my parents got divorced since that was a difficult time for me. I had moments in elementary school where we would share books we wrote with the class and invite our parents for an Authors Tea. Continuing into middle school and high school I enjoyed some of the chapter books we had to read for class, but like I said there wasnt a certain moment or book that really influenced my literacy. All throughout high school and into college I took French because I knew how culturally important it was to learn another language. That is when I finally realized that learning a second language was a big part of my literacy and still is.

I remember learning some Spanish in elementary school in fourth and fifth grade, but it was basic information such as colors and counting. To this day I can still count to at least ten and recognize colors in Spanish because of what I learned in my elementary Spanish classes. In middle school I took Spanish in eighth grade and I remember small projects we did here and there, one of which I recently found when cleaning through our house because we moved. I made a giant piata that represented a Twix bar. I dont remember why we made it but I do remember spending hours gluing tissue paper to cardboard. A few months ago I opened it because I remembered we had put something inside of it. It was a letter to me in Spanish, which jogged my memory that we wrote a letter to our self in Spanish to show what we had learned that year. It was interesting though because I couldnt read a lot of what I had written just a few years ago. I just remember Spanish being difficult, which lead me to take French in high school. In some ways I regret the decision to learn French instead of Spanish since French isnt as useful, but French came so easily to me and I enjoyed learning it. I also remember that my cousin had been taking French in middle school and loved it. I wanted to be able to speak in French and have conversations with her so that one day, we could go to France together. My cousin was such a big influence and sponsor to my French literacy that I ended up visiting Paris in middle school, which made me want to learn French even more in high school. Overall I thought France was an interesting place and I wanted to learn the language so that I could go back and speak their language in their country. I started taking French my sophomore year of high school and took it for three semesters straight. I took French up to level 3 and then stopped because I didnt want to take a full year class of French, which was level 4. It was also my senior year of high school and I wasnt sure I could focus on a second language. I had the same teacher three semesters in a row so I was also

tired of her and didnt want to be stuck with her for another year! The other French teacher was much more fun unlike my teacher who was really strict. Sometimes I wished I had the other fun teacher because it would have made the class more enjoyable. However, now I realize that I learned so much more from her than I would have from him because she was tough on us and made us understand what we were learning. Throughout my years of French in high school I learned to read and write paragraphs and have conversations in French. I was so proud of how much I accomplished in just three short semesters. Not only did I enjoy learning French, I was also good at it. I received an A in each of my French classes so I guess you could say it was my forte. Just writing this memoir makes me regret that I stopped taking French because I learned so much useful information that I cant even remember now. I spent all of that time learning and it frustrates me that I cant use it as well now. I feel like if I practiced French and took a beginner class to get me back into it then it wouldnt be so hard and Id remember a lot of what I had learned. I ended up going back to France when I graduated from high school as my graduation present. It was interesting going back to France and navigating the city because now I could understand and speak their language. It made the trip so much fun and I loved using what I had learned. It was the one subject in school that I actually went out and used for fun. One memory I have where my French came in handy was when my dad and I used a taxi in Paris. We were trying to give the taxi driver directions back to our hotel but he didnt speak any English so giving him an address or any kind of direction was going to be difficult. I remembered learning directions in my French class in high school so I used those! I told him which way to turn right (droite) or left (gauche) and we made it back to our hotel. It was amazing to see something as simple as that translated and there wasnt a language barrier between us anymore. He

understood where we needed to go and followed the directions I was giving him, which made it was an amazing experience! He really appreciated our cooperation and attempt to speak French since many tourists dont. Also on that trip I could order our meals in French and understand some of the small shops there like boucherie (a butcher shop), fleur (a flower shop), patisserie (a pastry shop), and charcuterie (the deli). Once I got to college I made the mistake of taking Spanish my freshman year because I knew it was more useful. That was a huge mistake because I ended up getting a D in that Spanish class and accidently kept writing in French on my Spanish tests. Spanish and French are very similar and there are some things I know in Spanish better than French but I understand the concept and grammar of French overall. After taking that Spanish class I soon learned that if Im going to continue a second language I need to continue French. I already have a strong base for it and I enjoy learning it, which is whats important. Spanish may be more useful but Im not as passionate about it. Yes, it can be frustrating when most people speak Spanish and I wish I could understand what theyre saying, but it is so much more rewarding when I hear someone speaking French since its not as common. Then I can understand something not everyone else can and it makes it more fun when you do hear someone speaking French every once in a while and you can somewhat follow what theyre saying. Ideally I would like to learn both French and Spanish but for now I know the basics of both and want to continue expanding my French. I need to take what I learned in high school and try to pick it back up in college because I would hate for it to go to waste. Learning a new language is exactly like learning how to read and write when youre little. It is the same concept and both are very frustrating but you want to learn so that you can understand the world around you. It is easier to grasp something so new at a young age instead

of learning a new language in high school because youre already comfortable with what you know. You learned to read and write in English and have been practicing it since you were little, which is when youre most receptive to learning and retaining information. As we get older its harder to learn a new language and unless you stick with it then it can be easily forgotten. I dont want all my hard work to go to waste just because Im not practicing it. If we didnt practice reading and writing when we were younger then we wouldnt know how to today. Learning French was a huge part of my literacy and I can remember learning it and how hard it was. That is exactly how I learned to read and write today but of course I remember French being so difficult because it was something new and more recent. I dont think English is difficult because Ive been speaking it my whole life and practiced it everyday. I had a reason to practice my English everyday because I wanted wanted to understand and be able to communicate. If I were living in France then it would force me to continue the language and use it everyday. You learn to adapt to whats around you in order to survive. I hope that I can continue building on what I have already learned and continue to learn French and practice it. I signed up for French I next semester and am very excited about it. I cant way to be reintroduced to French and remember everything I learned and how much I loved learning it.