Martinez 1

Juliana Martinez Linda Hofmann ENG 1101-22 30 April 2013 Literacy Memoir The Sound of my grandmothers voice as I listened to her stories while the sound of the waves crashing was behind me is where my joy for stories began. Growing up my sister and I would always beg our grandmother to tell us these stories when we spent the night with her. I remember all the stories so well even if they were just made up. These stories were all told in Spanish though and to this day when I think of story telling I think of stories told in Spanish. Being Born in Colombia, South America I became literate in Spanish. In my time there I spent a little bit of time in school but I was so young I didnt do much reading mostly just listening and talking. In the school that I went to they did try to teach us some English, it was a bilingual school, to help us get ahead in the business world. The transition from South America to the states was a big one that impacted my literacy immensely. As a six year old I left the country I was born in and made my way to the United States. I wasnt really aware of how big this move was being that I was only six years old. I remember arriving at our first house my dad already waiting for us with Ferbys for my sister and I and we spent our first night in America on mattresses on the ground. We arrived in the middle of summer so I didnt have to go straight to school. Since I was taught some English in my school in Colombia I knew basic English like, hello, how are you the simple stuff. I spent most of that summer with

Martinez 2

my family getting used to everything and pretty much speaking only Spanish. I shouldve been practicing my English though because I was not prepared for the trouble kindergarten was going to give me. Going into kindergarten was one of the hardest transitions I think I have been through to this day. I was the first one out of my siblings to go to American school. My brother is older than me by four years, but he decided to spend another year in Colombia with my grandparents, he was not ready to leave. So as I went to my first day of school I was so nervous I didnt know what it was going to be like, how I was going to communicate with the other kids, if everyone would look at me like I was some kind of creature, or if I would have any friends at all. The little I remember from this year let alone this day was that everyone was surprisingly friendly and very interested in the fact that I was from another country. There was one girl whose family was Hispanic as well and she spoke Spanish fairly well so I stuck with her for the first 2 years of elementary school. I started to catch up on my English with the help of speech classes, provided by my school and the help of my peers. Since my mom and dad were both working on their English as well I couldnt really go to them for help. This is something I was going to deal with for the rest of my life. My parents both came from Colombian culture so everything I was going through was knew to them as well. They were literate in Colombian culture and not in American culture. Even with this set back, before I knew it I was fluent in both English and Spanish, and I was so proud to say I was. I did have a little trouble with my accent at first but after the fourth grade it was pretty much gone. At home and school English became my first language and Spanish my second. Looking back on this I wish I had kept

Martinez 3

speaking Spanish at home, but I was so concerned with getting rid of my Spanish accent that I decided I needed to speak English all the time. Also not being able to go back to Colombia and see my family it was hard to stay connected to that part of my life and keep speaking Spanish at home when English had become the norm for me. Going back to Colombia for the first time was a big shock. I finally saw how much Spanish I had forgotten. My sister and I had lost our Spanish accents and gained a Gringas accent, meaning we sounded like Americans to Hispanics. Being back in Colombia I was now aware of the fact that my Spanish had become what English was to me before. This made me feel ashamed because speaking Spanish was part of my heritage, and I was born in a Spanish speaking country and I sounded like an outsider. Even though I dont speak perfect Spanish anymore I still consider myself a fluent speaker even though I may sound American. Our family didnt treat us any differently we were still the Colombian girl they knew and loved and we were still familiar with all the traditions that came along with our heritage. One thing I never learned how to do when I was younger was read in Spanish I was too young when we left and reading English stories in America. I remember being in Colombia on one of our vacations and my cousin reading to my sister and I. We would read along with her and try to figure out how to say things and sometimes she would let us read a sentence and correct us if we messed up. These book readings with my cousin are what stared my interest in reading stories in Spanish. I started to take the books back to the states with me. My sister and I would just sit in our room and read to each other. Eventually we both were able to read Spanish, but our reading was limited to the simple Spanish words in the kid books we were reading. Once I started going to

Martinez 4

school and taking Spanish classes they had us read a variety of things and that expanded my vocabulary in Spanish. Being literate in Spanish made some things easier for me than for other students who were not. When it came to learning languages, or vocabulary words in school I had a leg up. Knowing Spanish made it easier to learn other languages. I specifically remember being in school and being in a French class and being able to relate words and their meanings back to words in Spanish. When it came to learning vocabulary Spanish also helped. I was able to take some of the root words and connect them to words in Spanish. Even though Spanish did give me a leg up in some aspects in school it also held me back as well. When it came to taking a Spanish class in high school all my peers expected me to be the star student since I was fluent in Spanish, but I was fluent in different kind of Spanish than the Spanish we learn in school. Much like the Standard English debate. My Spanish was more a home voice Spanish rather than a school voice. Since most of the Spanish I knew was from home and listening to my family talk I picked up a lot of slang. So when it came to learning proper Spanish in school I would sometimes get things wrong because I was taught to say things differently. Sometimes I even have a little tourble with English words because of my Spanish background. I sometimes get words mixed up with how they are said in Spanish, or there are phrases in Spanish that dont translate over to English and I have to stop and think how to explain them. Even though I went through so much to find my voice and how to express myself it never stopped me from reading and writing. Growing up I always really enjoyed reading and writing. I enjoyed reading any book that really captivated me and immersed me in the story. I enjoyed reading teen

Martinez 5

novels or trilogies like Twilight, Uglies, Pretties, and Specials, or the Hunger Games. I always enjoyed getting so lost in a book that you start to think as if you are part of the story line and you know the characters personally. Reading for me gives me a break from reality and give me time to just step back and be part of another world for a little. Reading was an escape for me. I also really enjoyed writing in journals. I liked to get all my thoughts of the day out on paper and just say how I was feeling. I always had 5 or 10 different journals I was writing in at a time. I would just write my thoughts on whichever one I saw. I never really wrote to go back and be able to reminisce on my journal entries, but more to vent and say how I was feeling at that moment. Writing was a sort of therapy for me and helped me get through things I didnt talk about with other people. Writing in journals was an escape for me as well. My family, my friends, and everything around me have influenced me in big ways. Going back through my history has showed me that a lot of things go into making you the literate person you are today. Showing you that literacy is a lot more than just learning to read and write. Showing you that the experiences you go through in your life mold the path for which you will learn to be literate.

Martinez 6

Works Cited Gibaldi, Joseph. MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. 6th ed. New York: MLA, 2003. Lastname, Firstname. Title of the Book. City of Publication: Publisher, Year. Lastname, Firstname. Title of the Article. Name of the Scholarly Journal Volume.Issue (Date): first page-last page. Lastname, Firstname. Title of the Newspaper Article. Title of the Newspaper Date, edition: SectionPagenumber+. The Title of the Article. Title of Magazine Date: page number. Name of the Library Database: Name of the Service. Name of the library with city, state abbreviation. Date of access <URL>.