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Gasig Kejejian
Professor Vana DerOhanessian
English 114A
2 December 2014

Best of Both Worlds

When I was a young kid, I wanted to be like everyone else and speak perfect English,
without an accent. Growing up and being bilingual was an advantage, but it was definitely a
different experience compared to others. I was always surrounded by my family who spoke
Armenian, but when I started going to school, I learned how to speak English. Learning how to
speak two different languages at a young age was difficult. My parents sent me to a private
Armenian school, which resulted in my Armenian than my English. I had no say in attending an
Armenian school or not. My parents who wanted to ensure I never lost touch with my culture and
race enrolled me at a small Armenian private school. Although I was hesitant towards learning a
different language, it was a privilege because it showed me how people of different cultures treat
and respect one another depending on what language they speak.
By the first grade, my parents had enrolled my siblings and I in Sunday school. Now,
Sunday school wasnt a joke because my grandmother was the principal! Sunday school was
where we would go every Sunday as kids and learn religiously more about the Armenian culture.
I was the best in my class and would learn all my poems before everyone else. However, since
my Armenian was perfect at a young age, it was harder for me to learn English and speak
perfectly without having an accent. I remember my sister and I would speak in English to each
other to perfect our English, but we would just end up laughing at our accents. Everyone at
school spoke English and everyone living in my house spoke Armenian. I was confused and

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didnt know which language to speak, because I liked both languages. When it was time to
write, I had to learn not one but two different alphabets. This was amusing for me because I
thought it was cool to speak two languages because not everyone knew how to speak Armenian
and I would use that to my advantage in certain situations.
I was a pretty active kid and decided at a young stage in my life that I wanted to play
basketball. Playing a sport made me very happy, because it was like a secret getaway for me. I
would love to go play, get hurt, lose, get up and play again. Nonetheless, I didnt only play for
one team and had the opportunity to be on two teams instead, which proved to be a very
interesting experience. One of my teams was an all-Armenian team and the other team was my
YMCA team. These two teams let us stay active and play basketball but they were very different
from each other. One team would only speak Armenian, while the other team only spoke
English. Being on two diverse teams showed me how people react towards people that dont
belong to the same culture or speak the same language. My YMCA team-taught me to treat
others equally and fairly on and off the court. My Armenian team was a very comfortable team
to be on, every game consisted of a team effort because we had all been playing with each other
since first grade. We had a starting five that never changed and we also had the same point guard
throughout the years.
However, my other team at YMCA was different, but in a good way. On this team, we all
werent as comfortable with each other because we all came from different backgrounds, but we
all respected each other a little more on the court than my other team. This coach allowed any
guard to dribble the ball down the court; he treated everyone as an equal player. This made the
game harder for me, but it became easier once I got older. When I would play with my YMCA
team, I felt like I fell out the loop because I spoke Armenian. I was restricted on the court at

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times, but eventually found a way to play comfortably on both teams. After many years of
playing, High school basketball was a piece of cake. We started to use our language as an
advantage and would speak Armenian on the court as a secret language for the other teams to not
understand.
Being sent to an Armenian school my entire life shaped my reading and writing skills. To
learn how to speak two languages is a blessing and an experience. It gives different
opportunities, advantages and a connection with a different group of people. My school also
helped me choose a certain circle of friends, and build golden friendships. I had an unforgettable
teacher from my school whose name was Digin Ghazarian. This was my Armenian teacher and
as a kid, shes made me cry over five times a day. My Armenian teacher was strict, mean and a
perfectionist. I would struggle to get all my homework done and learn all the material she would
give us. I wouldnt struggle though because it was hard, I would struggle because I was scared I
was going to mess up and get a bad grade. This resulted in me sitting down with my grandma for
hours when I got home from school. We would sit to do homework but because of frustration
and pressure to perfect my Armenian, I would go crazy. However, this teacher taught me
patience the meaning of hard work and effort, which I would carry throughout the rest of my life.
Similar to my struggle, Amy Tan wrote an article called Mother Tongue, and she says, But I
do think that the language spoken in the family, especially in immigrant families which are more
insular, plays a large role in shaping the language of a child (79). I found this sentence
significant because I believe what it says is true, if your family speaks a language, youll most
probably learn it. My teacher made me hate learning my own language, but she taught me to be a
good student, study skills and how everything is possible if you just put your mind to it. She
taught me that giving up was a quality that belonged to the lazy. Learning the Armenian

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language provided me with the opportunity to learning more about my culture and people, but
also helped progress my thoughts as a person, which carried on to helping me discover who I am
in such a close-knit Armenian community.
School, family and sports have influenced my life and being bilingual has paved my
reading and writing skills throughout my life thus far. I still believe I have a lot to learn,
experience, see. Even though I didnt have the choice of learning another language, Im happy I
did because it helped shape my worldview and helped me grow as a person. Learning Armenian
was a privilege, it taught me how to respect and taught me that everyone comes from someplace,
and we cant judge them based on their language. Also, playing basketball with people of
culture, and then with people not of my culture, helped improve my social skills and taught me
great sportsmanship. What I learned throughout my experience so far is, nobody is raised
perfectly in any shape or form. We all have a gift of understanding one another, and that is the
true beauty of language.

Works Cited

Tan, Amy. The Opposite of Fate: A Book of Musings. New York: Putnam, 2003. Print.

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