Lyndsey Serino Ms.

Erin Workman ENC 1101 Paper One: Personal Exploration Many different things can influence literature. It can be a person, place, yearlong experience, or a single event. Whatever it may have been, it impacted ones life enough to not only force them to change as a person, but also as a student, reader, and writer. For some this may mean a religious retreat to a foreign country or perhaps a teacher really pushing them in an English class until their writing drastically changes. Maybe it was just reading one single book that changed someones whole viewpoint on writing entirely. For me though, my grandma was the one who changed my writing that helped shape my identity. My grandma was born and raised in Japan and did not move to the United States until much later in her life when marrying my grandpa, of whom she met when he was stationed in Japan by the American Navy. She was taught English at her school in Japan so she had a small understanding of it that grew larger and larger every year. Growing up around her and her different form of English influenced my literature into what it is becoming today. Up until I was about three years old, my grandma would take care of me every day while my parents worked. She would sit on the carpet and play with my toys with me. She would cook me my favorite cheese quesadillas for lunch. But most importantly, my grandma would teach me. She would teach me everything from what noise a dog makes to speaking in Japanese. She taught me how to write my name, and she helped teach me how to read. We must have read every single Dr. Seuss book together, while I

Lyndsey Serino 2 sat patiently next to her on the couch sounding out every word. I loved reading with her. She always gave me incentives to learn too, ice cream, a trip to the toy store, whatever my little self desired at that moment. These incentives especially came into play when learning to tie my shoes. I practiced tying my shoes every single day; first the cross over, then bunny ears, and finally pull it through the loop. The day I finally tied my shoes I got to go to the toy store and pick out any toy I wanted. I was like a little kid on Christmas morning gazing up at all of the toys that could potentially be mine. She made me eager to learn, even if it was just to go buy more toys. As I got older, she taught me little words in Japanese. Wed start with basic words like hello. Konnichiwa. Then she taught me how to count from one to ten. Here I was, still a small child, not only learning new words in English every day but in Japanese as well. Although I am still not fluent in Japanese and only know a few words, my grandmas language has become an influence on my writing. Learning her language at the same time as my own shaped the way I read and wrote in school and stuck with me as I continued to improve my literacy growing up. I am more culturally diverse as a person and well rounded in different forms of the English language because of it. This means I am not limited to only understanding how Americans speak English and how native Japanese speak English. Since I understand what the Japanese are trying to say when they confuse a word or leave out part of a phrase, I can also pick up what another culture, like the Spanish, is trying to communicate when they are using their form of the English language. Growing up hearing my grandmas voice every day I never saw her English as different. As I grew older I started to notice that not everyone was hearing her in the same way I was. I never had trouble understanding what she was saying. I knew that

Lyndsey Serino 3 sometimes she left a word out of a sentence or used the wrong tense of a word, but it all sounded normal to me. Other people who do not grow up around other cultures do not have as broad of a grasp on the English language. Being out in public with my grandma, watching her try to communicate with other people, has helped me understand how her Japanese English compares to our English and how others interpret it. Any time I spend time with her, all of the little things she says have slowly taught me about the English language. Other people do not receive the opportunity to become knowledgeable on a lifestyle other than their own simply because they are not exposed to it, and language is a big part of a cultures lifestyle. My grandma and I used to go to the mall where she would ask to put an item of clothing on hold. The worker would then ask for her name. She used to tell them her real name, Shizuko, but after many failed attempts from many different workers desperately trying to pronounce her name, she always ended up just telling them her name was Sue. Now when we go shopping, she doesnt even bother to tell anyone her real name, she skips right to Sue. As adults, people dont take the time to learn different forms of the English language. Since I did as a child, it has changed my perspective toward all cultures language. My understanding of her language shaped my language, which in turn shaped how I read and wrote. As a writer and reader it has enabled me to interpret different dialects in literature, enhancing my literacy. Obtaining knowledge about another cultures history provides me with an advantage in my reading and writing by allowing me to have a more diverse perspective, shaping my writing to be unique from others around me. In my junior year of high school I was assigned by my history and English classes to read a book about Japanese Americans in the United States during World War II. In my reading I learned how the

Lyndsey Serino 4 Japanese Americans were wrongly placed in internment camps throughout America merely for being Japanese. I noticed that their unfair treatment was similar, but not nearly as harsh, to the Jewish people living in Germany. Although my grandma was not living in the United States during this time, other Japanese people just like her were affected. She described to me what her life was like living in Japan during World War II. To her it was hectic and unfair since she was not causing any harm to anyone. As I listened intently and compared her story with the Japanese womans story from my novel, I realized that my grandma and this woman identify closely. They were both just trying to proceed with their daily lives as any other citizen would. Gaining this background knowledge about my grandmas culture helped me understand and empathize with the Japanese Americans in the book. I had a better understanding of what the message was the author was trying to convey through her writing and what the Japanese Americans were going through. My grandmas history provided me with more knowledge on the topic than my peers and made it easier to analyze the book for assignments and papers. My writing had a broader viewpoint than others because I had my grandma as a source. My grandma being Japanese does not limit me to only understanding her culture. It makes me more diverse and helps me to learn about and understand other cultures as well. This understanding of diversity has helped my writing blossom. Without learning about my grandmas background I would not have as broad of a range of writing as I do today. My grandma constantly tells me how Japan is passing the United States in terms of education. She stresses to me how much they study, how many classes they go to each day, and how much longer they are in school, resulting in a longer period of time to soak in even more knowledge. She says American courses are not rigorous enough compared

Lyndsey Serino 5 to all of the higher-level course work being done in Japan. Even from a young age, when I was only in elementary school, my grandma always told me, You try best you can. It made me strive to do better in all of my classes, especially when it came to my reading and writing. She did not get a great opportunity at education like I have so she pushed me to achieve my best. Once again, she used incentives to help me reach my full potential. As I got older, the toys I received for tying my shoes transformed into money for earning straight As, or mostly As, on my progress reports and report cards. My grandmas constant pushing encouraged me to try harder in school. I wanted to show her that I am taking full advantage of the opportunity of education that is sitting right in front of me. Whether I enjoyed it or not, this forced my writing, and other studies, to grow into what it is today. Without her, my writing, reading, and other studies would not still be evolving to reach the best they could be. With my grandma living fifteen minutes down the road, not only has she been such a big impact in my life, but I in her life as well. She has taught me how to do numerous things and I, in return, have taught her. My grandma was not able to have so many learning opportunities in her time in Japan as we have here today in the United States. She did not learn to drive a car until she was around fifty years old. Today Americans have the opportunity to learn when they are sixteen. Since she learned so late, there are still certain roads that my grandma refuses to drive on. In this case, she relies on my mother or I to get her to these places, as we are teaching her that learning to drive on unknown roads can become simple like learning English, too. Since I grew up hearing both my parents and grandma speak English I was very well rounded in the language. Because of my parents and the American school system, I knew things my grandma was

Lyndsey Serino 6 never taught, like weird grammar rules. Why is it one dog and two dogs, but not one deer and two deers? To this day I still help her perfect her own English language. I may have to inform her about a word she left out when trying to put together a phrase or explain to her why shes using the wrong form of a word. Sometimes I have to explain to a store employee in Publix or JoAnnes what it is my grandmother is really looking for because she does not know the English word for it. In restaurants, my mother or I often order for my grandma so the waiter does not get her order messed up because he did not fully and correctly comprehend her accent. Having to teach others about my grandmas English has really helped me learn about it as well. I believe teaching others really is the best way to learn. When you know something well enough to teach it, that is when you know you have truly mastered it. The more I learned about my grandmas English the more interested in the diversity aspect of the language I became. Not only do Japanese people see the English language differently than Americans, but people from all around the world in which English is not their first language. Understanding this helped me in many different subjects including my writing. My grandmas Japanese influence changed me as a writer. Growing up so close to my grandma has given her and I a very close bond. We continue to help each other out when we go places, whether it is out to lunch, shopping, or if she is just coming over to help straighten up the house. She has taught me so many things and I would not be the person I am today if it was not for her. My Japanese background will definitely help my reading and writing here at Florida State University. My understanding of language and culture will allow me to be more diverse in my writing and understand different viewpoints in my reading. It will help me connect with

Lyndsey Serino 7 where other students, teachers, and authors are coming from since they will not always comprehend things the same way I do. Not only has my grandma made me into the culturally diverse person I am today, but also the well-rounded writer and reader who now knows so much more about the English language.