Muna Rouk Rouk 1

Mrs. Grant
UWRT 1103
September 3
rd
, 2014
Literacy in a Common Language
Lying face down in the middle of the seemingly large twin bed was a copy of Junie B.
Jones. As a first grader, delighted would not even begin to describe my feelings of pride for
surpassing my peers reading level by two years. In first grade, the teachers separated students
into groups based on reading level. Coincidentally, or uncoincidentally rather, all the kids from
minority races had been put into one reading group, myself unfairly included. The teacher would
make each kid in the group read a page in a picture book and then try to help them. I breezed
through the reading, enunciating each word correctly and earning enough star stickers to cover
the entire title page of The Magic School Bus. What I did not realize at the time was my
advanced reading ability did not come from sheer good luck and intelligence. A mother who
could barely understand English forced me to learn very early how to read everything from
parking citations to cookie recipes and then quickly translate them in Arabic for her. Having to
swiftly learn large vocabulary words and adjust to the different circumstances that required a
translator provided more practice than any first grade class ever could. At the time I dreaded the
mere thought of going on a grocery trip with my mother and deciphering every single ingredient.
Even worse was when I could not figure out what certain food items were used for or what some
ingredient meant in Arabic because then I had to look for someone who worked at the grocery
store which I was terrified to do as 7 year old. It was a full time job for me and my mother made
sure to take me everywhere she went. Having to translate for my mother taught me how
important it is to be literate. I learned that literacy is priceless, and even as a young child I went
Rouk 4
much farther than the kids who struggled to get through a sentence with six words. I was able to
get through math tests twice as fast because I did not have to read the same problem sentences
three or four times like my friends in order to understand them. I got through books for classes
within only a few hours and my comprehension levels were at their peak because of how much
mom required me to understand and then translate. To this day I am still astounded by how much
my mother unknowingly pushed my success in literacy and thankful that she did so.
Literacy in an Uncommon Language
Sitting in the backseat of my fathers minivan, I brainstormed all the reasons why I hated
being from a middle-eastern background with traditional Muslim, Arab parents. I was 13 years
old and absolutely fed up with having to deal with a second culture. The list of complaints was
endless, starting with the fact that I hated having to put up with rules and restrictions that no one
else had to deal with. I despised having to constantly translate for my parents and the fact that
they did not understand common slang like everyone elses parents. They did not have a clue
about school functions like dances and graduations, and having to explain to them the concept of
sleepovers and why people enjoy sleeping at other peoples houses annoyed me to no end.
Another thing that I hated was having to sacrifice my Friday and Saturday nights in order to
attend Arabic weddings and events. At a time when most people wished to be multicultural, I
wanted nothing more than to be the average American girl with American parents who
understood all the problems in my life. Hiding the things that make you different can be hard
when even your name and the way you look invites questions about your background. I became a
professional though, learning to quickly lead the conversations in another direction and only
vaguely answering questions about any cultural traditions. One day at the DMV an elderly white
woman sat next to me and asked me the usual questions about my culture. Her questions got
Rouk 5
specific, and I realized how much I did not know about my own Arab culture. I had no idea how
to even read Arabic at the time, and up until that point I avoided speaking Arabic at all costs. At
this time I was a sophomore in high school, and I finally understood the problem with avoiding
your culture. When someone loses something that makes them different, that thing is gone
forever, never to resurface in anyone else. I reflected on the past three years of Americanizing
myself and the purpose of doing it. At the time, I was trying to rebel against my parents and be
like everyone at the same time. I realized how completely pointless both of those actions were. I
think at one point everyone realizes that the place they come from is not something that can be
easily buried and should not be easily buried. I decided to make up for lost time and relearn all
the things I tried so hard to forget. I started with my native tongue, relearning how to read and
write Arabic all over again. I still knew how to speak Arabic, I just never actually used it. In the
beginning, I embarrassed myself and my parents trying to communicate with other Arabic
speakers. My grammar was completely off and the only thing I did was think of a sentence in
English and then change the words to Arabic, butchering a lot of the meaning in the Arabic
words. I did not ever admit defeat though, I just kept going. I taught myself how to read and
write in Arabic, a skill I had not used since the third grade and eventually I was able to
comprehend most Arabic. I moved on to the culture portion of this process, making friends with
the other middle-eastern people in the community and building a circle of friends who truly
understood all the struggles that came with having immigrant parents. In the beginning, I thought
that the literacy portion was only when I learned to read and write Arabic but in reality that was
only a part of the greater literacy. I was now literate in a whole new reality where people ate
different food and had different practices but everything had a reason that most people probably
would not understand but I came to accept and cherish that reality.
Rouk 4
Literacy in Other People
Most people will tell you that they are friendly and are good at communicating and
understanding those around them. They will say that can easily work with other people and can
easily do jobs as mundane as being a cashier at a random convenience store. Until this summer, I
believed I was one of those people. I had to get a job to pay for some college expenses because
my parents believed I needed to learn the value of a dollar, so I began working at one of my
dads convenience stores as a cashier. I walked in believing it would be easy, and in the
beginning it was. All I had to do was learn how to work the cash register and know the prices
and everything else would be easy. Unfortunately, I was very wrong in this respect for many
different reasons. Being a cashier at a convenience store in the middle of a tight knit community
in Durham is harder than most people may believe. The same people walk into the store multiple
times a day, and after a while they expect you to know exactly what they will ask. I will not lie,
this was quite overwhelming for me considering I could barely tell the difference between most
of the old women that walked into the store. I was raised in an affluent area right outside Raleigh
known as Cary, so most of the people did not have a strong southern accent. Durham is quite
opposite in that way because the people are proud of their American, southern heritage and will
proudly display a rich southern vocabulary. A quick culture shock overcame me as well, because
it is no easy task having to learn all the possible English words that deep southerners might use
to describe one simple object. Eventually, like all things, I became literate at this culture. It
became easy for me to understand the fast and seemingly undecipherable accents of most of the
old people that walked into the store. I prided myself on knowing random facts about the lives of
my customers and thoroughly enjoyed all the things I learned from them. I discovered for the
second time that literacy does not always go hand in hand with learning how to read and write in
Rouk 5
a certain language. It is more culture oriented than anything else, because if you want to learn to
speak English, it helps a great deal to understand how those who speak English act on a day to
day basis and how they think. Literacy is understanding more than just a spoken tongue, it is
understanding a people.