Seck

Yakhya

Seck

D. Jizi
UWRT 1103
14 August 2015

Literacy Narrative Essay Draft

Born and raised in Senegal (West Africa), I learned to read and write in French, which is the official
language. I speak three different languages. The third language I speak is called Wolof. The way I became the
writer and the reader Im today is different in comparison to each language. In this paper, I will focus on my
primary language which is French that formed who Im today as a writer and reader.

I learned to read and write at school and at home as well. My elementary teacher, Miss Diop helped me
become the writer and reader Im today. At my early age, I was not focus at school, but she found ways to keep
my classmate and I really interested in her class. I remember at the beginning of the class, early in the morning
she tried to make everybody comfortable by creating a connection with us. She used to let us dance, express
ourselves as kids. I did not like reading and writing. I hated it! All I enjoyed was singing the A, B, C song with
my classmates. She got us compete between classmates in a challenge game about the alphabet letters or
numbers. The winners always were granted toys or sweeties. From something that was boring at first, we finally
start having fun. She was a good teacher who really cares about us. When somebody was absent, she always
tried to reach out to the parents or if needed visit you in your house so you can go back to school. For many
other of my former classmates and I, she was for us more just than a teacher. After we get to high school, we
still kept good relationship with her. Besides Miss Diop, my uncle Cheikh Omar helped me a lot in my learning
1

Seck 2
process of reading. I hated see him around when I get from school. He was always at home waiting for me. I
was rushing to be at home so I could watch my favorite cartoon called Bouba or some days, Tarzan, but he
wouldnt let me unless I finished all my home works. So, I used to do my home works very fast in order to
watch Tv. These two individuals and the French Embassy library personnel in Mauritania can be considered as
my literacy sponsors.
Therefore, as I was progressing through school, I was frustrated some times about reading and writing.
As far I remember, writing some long and difficult words, hard to remember was very frustrating. It is hard to
know all the vocabulary and some times, I got very irritated when I come across words I could read properly,
nor remember to write.
I used to detest also writing and reading, because it looks boring to me, especially school books.
Nevertheless, now I love reading because, it is a source of knowledge that I need in order to succeed at school
and to understand better the world. I like reading better than watching a movie or a documentary on Tv. The
stories in most of the books are more natural and less fake than in other mediums.
I like writing and reading about politics and sports. I do believe that my feelings and habits of writing
and readings comes from my immediate family where I grown up. I think that being raised in an intellectual
environment with lot of books around me gave me a taste of reading and writing at a very young age. I
remember that we use to organize with my cousins, competition called book challenge and other ones I even do
not remember anymore. After being accepted at the University, this passion of writing led me straight to the
school of Journalism. I become journalist in different newspapers.
Mysteries and thrillers are my favorite types of books to read. I really love mysteries and thrillers,
because of the high-stakes tension and suspense.
I learned to speak English back in my native country, Senegal at school for about eight years. I took my
first English class at high school. I dont think that the transition from French to English was a difficult one,
2

Seck
because I always loved English. Also, both languages derived from Latin. Thus, they have a lot of similarities.

Our past experiences as a reader or a writer played a tremendous role in our development. It looks like
its all link together.
I made some changes on my text in order to answer to questions of my reader about the third language
that I speak. I did not mention it in my first draft. Also, I responded about where and when do I learn how to
speak and read English. I tried to clarify about my transition from French to English. At last, I edify the reader
about my absolute favorite book genre.