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Elaine Thai
Laura Knudson
English 1103
10 September 2014

Literacy Memoir
I come from a home that spoke a rare dialect of Chinese called Teochew, and
Vietnamese. English was not my first language, which made it difficult for me to learn and
understand three languages. The first language I spoke was Teochew and that was the language
that was mainly spoken in my home. My parents were immigrants and did not know much
English, so they did not read to me or teach me English. Ironically, I ended up reading to my
parents and aunt when I learned English.
However, I grew up not knowing what English was until I enrolled in Kindergarten. I
remember watching childrens programming like Sesame Street, Barney, and Teletubbies when I
was younger, but I never quite understood what they were conveying. I believe I learned from
those programs through visual body language. Luckily kids at that age could easily pick up new
languages or else I would have given up easily. It is fascinating how different the spoken
grammar is from English and Chinese, but yet I adapted.
Learning English was not difficult but it was not easy at the same time. Understanding
and speaking was easy but reading and writing were much more difficult. My teachers believed I
struggled when I was in Kindergarten, so the following year I was placed in ESL. This is a
program for students whose first language are not English. I always praised this program because
it really helped me, well at least until I began understanding English and became fluent when I

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was at least 8. It is honestly a great program for young children who struggle with learning
English. However, most kids are not perfect at English when they are young. I had trouble
reading and writing well, but that was not because I did not know English. It seems like it is
always assumed that if English is not an individuals first language then that individual is
deemed incompetent. It was embarrassing having to review the simplistic alphabet and having
my peers believe that I was a foreigner who did not comprehend the English language. My goal
at the time was to make some sort of validation that I knew English so I could feel that I was on
the same level as my classmates.
For instance, I remember correcting my first grade teacher when she did not even know
how to spell the word all. She went around classrooms asking if the word all was spelt with
one l or two ls. It was ridiculous, and that was around the time I started questioning the
education levels of the teachers at my school. How was I the incompetent one when this teacher
did not even have the confidence to spell all? No one questioned if my teacher understood
English or recommend her for ESL but when I made one mistake the teaching staff turned into
chaos.
In fact, the ESL staff was much more encouraging than my actual teachers. I have had
some discouraging teachers, but they were not as horrifically racist as Malcom Xs 8th grade
teacher. I had several teachers holding me back but when I grew older ESL became extremely
helpful by encouraging me to read and write more. They helped me see that books can be fun,
and the more I had fun with reading and writing the better I got. Discouraging students will only
oppress them from the brilliant minds they can become.
On the other hand, to pass ESL I had to make a perfect score on an English evaluation
exam. Because of this it took me until the 8th grade to finally pass ESL. I believed I and several

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others were underestimated. This is because I needed all 5s to pass, thus one 4 could fail me. I
strongly believe it is not a fair way of passing students by requesting a perfect score. It can be
observed as unfair if that exam were to be taken by the population of students that claim English
as their first language. Most likely, not every student would receive a perfect score. And when a
student does not receive that perfect score of straight 5s, they are placed in ESL for another
year.
As well as learning how to read through books, before my texting addiction, I loved to
watch television on a daily basis. I mainly watched cartoons and anime when I was younger. The
difference between the two is that if I wanted to watch anime I had to do so on the computer with
English subtitles. It might appear as a silly and irrelevant way to have learned vocabulary, but it
taught me how to read faster. This was the same with texting, it may seem ludicrous but texting
and watching subtitles helped me think and respond faster. Additionally, anime and Asian
television taught me words in other languages. The appeal from Asian programming and anime
originates from relating to characters that were similar to me. It had such an impact on me that it
influenced me to learn Chinese in high school as a foreign language class.
I thought learning Mandarin Chinese would be easy because I was Chinese.
Unfortunately it was like learning a new language. The dialect of Teochew Chinese that was my
first language is absolutely different than Mandarin Chinese. Luckily, all I had to do in that
online class was repeat what the teacher said. I learned a few words in Mandarin but the writing
was a pain to remember and made me appreciate English. I valued the English language for
possessing an alphabet, which made me feel lucky to have been born in the United States. I could
not imagine having to remember a plethora of individual characters to read, because
memorization is what I believe is wrong with the education system.

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Asian programming and anime also influenced me to write my own stories in
composition books when I was about 10 years old. It was as if my training wheels were taken off
and I could write anything I wanted to. This is a habit I continue doing and has evolved from
several composition books in my drawers to an online fan fiction that currently has almost
12,000 reads. I enjoyed writing stories about girls my age who became empowered to do things
they never imagined they could do. The basic plot for most of my old stories were of young girls
who were stupid and nave but were able to save the world from the evil that suppresses
happiness. In a sense, those stories could be portrayed as a diary of my emotions. For instance,
this a haiku I wrote my freshman year of high school:
Dream Bugs drift away
Across the sky and forest
The dreams left behind.

This haiku may be interpreted in two different ways. The Dream Bugs who represent the
dreams of all people, may have left forever as a symbolic representation of an individual losing
their dreams or goals. The other interpretation is that the Dream Bugs realized the individual has
accomplished their dreams or goals and does not require the Dream Bug to be there with them.
Thus, they fly away representing the individuals growth. This piece is an example of one of the
first moments I remember enjoying the beauty of English. Being able to put words together to
create a piece of art that my peers enjoyed and later in my life 12,000 readers!
Although I enjoyed reading and writing, I stopped enjoying it in school. School
encourages education but there was rarely any enjoyment. I never enjoyed the topics or novels I
was required to read. Occasionally, I enjoyed one novel my teachers would pick out. In Past
Experiences by Erika J. Peterson, she notes that only one person in her research enjoyed what

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she read in school. It should not take a whole experiment to figure out that school is boring, but it
seems like an issue that is ignored. I do not believe that reading classics should be eradicated, but
English should be fun.
In, The Sponsors of Literacy, there was a debate on whether English should be taught
in a plain boring way by learning all the rules of grammar or by the traditional way. When I was
in Middle School my 8th grade teacher went over so much grammar that it became difficult to
remember all these rules and terms. That class was a mix of reading one very boring book that
did not need to take a year to read, and a bunch of grammar rules. Neither ways of teaching in
The Sponsors of Literacy interested me.
The traditional way of teaching English classes is by throwing classic novels at students
and telling them to memorize it so they can be intelligent. Intelligence is not memorization and
cramming for the several test that one is given. Malcom X believes literacy is the ability to read
and understand in, Learning to Read. That is what I believe, and what teachers should be doing
is giving us an option on novels that are interesting. Some classics are phenomenal but most are
honestly an eye sore.
I remember one of the most difficult novels I had to read and interpret was the Scarlet
Letter. It was a summer reading assignment for the first Honors English class that I would take.
It was difficult because there were numerous unfamiliar religious symbols that I could not
understand. I was used to reading novels in which the teacher would discuss the material with the
class and explain the literary devices. But I felt so lost and was not sure if it was because I knew
nothing about Christianity or because I was an idiot.

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I was confused and did not know how to respond to the reading. When there were class
discussions I did not want to participate in fear of being seen as incompetent. But it did happen,
my teacher assumed I did not know how to keep up with the material and suggested that I drop
the course. I realized that my fear became a reality, I was seen as incompetent- again. I was
struggling with the material but I was confident that I was not incompetent, so I carefully studied
her corrections on my papers. It was obvious that she preferred a pattern to her papers and
strictly enforced transitions. I took notes during seminars to understand the religious context of
the novels we read in class and what I did not understand.
This is when I understood that I was not smart or at least most people are not. I had to
take notes any study them, and this is how I learned new words and ideas that was never placed
in front of me by a teacher. I learned about society and how strong an individuals opinion was.
The seminars went beyond the novels and into debates about modern society. It was interesting
and I enjoyed it I learned. I learned much more from my peers than I did my own teacher. I
followed her pattern and created my own sophisticated ideas to create an essay she found
brilliant. She was stunned that I actually made something that appeared as intelligent. But I still
never believed I was smart. I am not smart because I had to study what my peers knew. I only
believe that I am not incompetent and I pursue to prove those who think I am wrongly. What I
did was structure my words in a way that my teacher preferred.
During my senior year, the majority of my previous class was told that the way we were
taught to write was too structured. My teacher encouraged us to aim at finding our own writing
style. We had a choice at what we could read for our summer reading assignment. By giving us
this sense of freedom I found what I liked to read and write about. In addition, she allowed us to
choose from a list of classics for our research paper. I noticed then that there was a myriad of

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interesting novels that were actually appropriate for a school research paper. It shocked me
because throughout Middle School and High school I could have been reading a classic that I
found interesting. Having a choice in what to read is what I believe many students desire.
Through an appropriate list of books I was given, I chose to do my final research paper
on Notes from the Underground by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. I wish I discovered this novel or a
novel in similarity before, because this novel made me appreciate classic novels. I interpreted the
underground mans philosophy with my own which amazed my teacher. It was a difficult task
but it was enjoyable and I learned a lot about the types of novels I enjoy and the psychology of
an author. For the first time I understood the author and what he was trying to convey. Oddly
enough, understanding the mind of a mad man made me feel literate. I did not read to remember
the events in this novel, I read to understand what the message was. Usually I would read to
make an attempt to remember the events for a test and not focus on understanding.
Ultimately, students should be able to choose what they want to read because it will help
them discover the types of novels and writing styles they prefer. This will help them not see
reading as a way of memorization but understanding. There were times I struggled with reading
in a sense that my education could have been improved. I could have been encouraged more but
in life I know that I cannot depend on encouragement from others. I realized I learned English in
a variety of ways and had several influences. I find joy in writing fictional stories and love my
online fans. I am glad I never stopped my habit of writing stories and hope it does not cease. In
conclusion, I have to empower myself to continue improving my literacy and education.