"My Struggles with English"

Since I was a little girl I was taught only Spanish. I was the first child which made me the first child from my family born in the United States. For many Hispanic families, Spanish is the only language they can speak and is the only way to communicate. As the Central American family that I come from, I as well was taught to speak Spanish and made it my first language. As I grew older my struggles with learning English increased.

When I started elementary school my parents debated whether to put me in a Spanish or English class. At last my parents placed me in a Spanish class. At first I did not understand the difference and importance of English. As I grew older and move up into higher grade levels, I understood the meaning of English.

During my first grade I was placed in a normal English class with an African American lady as my teacher who did not speak Spanish at all. I had a hard time communicating with my teacher and the rest of my classmates. I always feared reading in class because I had an accent. When I was in fourth grade and I thought I knew everything in English, I found out that that English is a never ending lesson. There are always more words to learn and different structures for becoming a better writer.

My biggest struggle was in high school, my freshman year. My freshman year I had to put both languages together. I was taking an English and Spanish class. I had to learn to manage both languages as two different subjects rather than putting them together and making it into “Spanglish’, what everyone thinks is a new language.

Many of my classmates would speak “Spanglish” , not Spanish nor English . It’s a mixture of both and improper. I did not want to be one of them. I wanted to be able to speak proper Spanish and proper English.

Now that I am working I get to put the two languages I know into work. Since I work at Vons store as a cashier, I get many different customers who speak different languages. Sometimes I struggle when people like Koreans don’t speak English and cannot communicate with them as I charge their groceries. I am thankful that after all my hard work and struggles, I have been able to manipulate both languages in a way that I can communicate with others with no struggle. Sometimes I even translate people who cannot speak English.

Even though I can speak both languages well, I cannot stop learning because there are always new vocabulary and better ways to make your language stronger and meaningful.