Elizabeth Spink Professor Jan Rieman English 1101 February 11, 2014 Second Language In this piece I am trying

to explain how I learned a second language since nothing from my early years stood out. I know I need a more creative title and Id like to add some visuals in my memoir. If there are any ideas for a title or visuals that would be helpful! Learning a new language can relate to learning English as a child so I tried to explain that comparison in this memoir. Since Im not doing a memoir from my early childhood hopefully it will be a little more descriptive! I know its a little choppy but I was just putting my thoughts down As I thought about my childhood and literacy nothing stood out to me. I could only remember little times here and there when my parents would read to me or I would enjoy reading. Every year starting December 1st I would read a book up until Christmas with my mom each night. I remember sometimes writing in a diary which I loved doing because I wanted to remember my life. I wrote a lot in it when my parents got divorced since that was a difficult time for me. I had moments in elementary school where we would share our books with the class and invite our parents for an Authors Tea where we read our books to our parents and dressed up. Continuing into middle school and high school I enjoyed some of the chapter books we had to read for class but like I said there wasnt a certain moment or book that really influenced my literacy. I finally realized that learning a second language was a big part of my literacy and still is.
Comment [JR2]: I understand your rationale for including all of this thinking through why you would write about learning a second language, but think about how this intro might work is you just jumped right into our second language acquisition and its impact on your literacy development. Comment [JR1]: This is all helpful to know as I read.

In todays culture knowing a second language is important for many reasons. In Elementary and middle school I didnt realize this, but once I got to high school and college I realized how important learning a second language was. I remember learning a little Spanish in elementary school around fourth and fifth grade but it was basic like colors and counting. To this day I can still count to at least 10 because of my elementary Spanish and know colors in Spanish when someone says them or I see them on a crayon. It makes me so proud to know small things like that but thats because I understand something that is foreign to me. In middle school I took Spanish in eighth grade and I remember small projects we did here and there; one of which I recently found when cleaning through our house because we moved. I made a giant piata that represented a Twix bar. I dont remember why we made it but I do remember spending hours gluing tissue paper to cardboard. A few months ago I opened it because I remembered we had put something inside of it. It was a letter to me in Spanish, which jogged my memory that we wrote a letter to our self in Spanish to show what we had learned that year. It was interesting though because I couldnt read a lot of what I had written. I just remember Spanish being difficult which lead me to take French in high school. In some ways I regret the decision to learn French instead of Spanish since French isnt as useful but French came so easily to me and I enjoyed learning it. I also remember that my cousin had been taking French in middle school and loved it. I wanted to be able to speak in French and have conversations with her so that one day, we could go to France together. I went to Paris in middle school, which also made me want to learn French. Overall I thought France was an interesting place and I wanted to learn the language so that I could go back and speak their language in their country.

Comment [JR3]: Such as? Why was it important to you?

Comment [JR4]: Is something still foreign to you once you know it?

Comment [JR5]: This sentence seems out of place.

I started taking French my sophomore year of high school and took it for three semesters straight. I took French up to level 3 and then stopped because I didnt want to take a full year class of French, which was level 4. It was also my senior year of high school and I wasnt sure I could focus on a second language. Now I absolutely regret not taking it as much as I could because I learned so much and really enjoyed it. I had the same teacher three semesters in a row so I was also tired of her. The other French teacher was much more fun and my teacher was very strict but I learned so much more from her. Sometimes I wished I had the other fun teacher because it would have made the class more enjoyable. That is another factor why I didnt take French 4 because I didnt want to be stuck with the same teacher again for a year! In high school French I learned to read and write paraghraphs in French and got all As in my French classes. Just writing this memoir makes me regret that I stopped taking French because I learned so much useful information that I cant even remember now. I spent all that time learning and it frustrates me that I cant use it as well now. I feel like if I practiced French and took a beginner class to get me back into it then it wouldnt be so hard and Id remember a lot of what Id learned. I ended up going back to France when I graduated from high school as my graduation present. It was interesting going back to France and navigating the city understanding and speaking their language. It made the trip so much fun and I loved using what I had learned. It was the one subject in school that I actually went out and used for fun. One fun memory I have where my French came in handy was when my dad and I needed a taxi in Paris. We were trying to give the taxi driver directions back to our hotel but he didnt speak any English so giving him an address or any kind of direction was going to be difficult. I remembered learning directions in my French class in high school so I used those! I told him which way to turn right (droite) or left (gauche) and we made it back to our hotel. It was amazing to see something as simple as that
Comment [JR7]: You jump around a lot in this paragraph. Comment [JR6]: This sentence seems to break the flow of you talking about why you didnt continue with a fourth year of French.

translated and there wasnt a language barrier between us anymore. He understood where we needed to go and followed the directions I was giving him it was an amazing experience! He really appreciated our cooperation and attempt to speak French since many tourists dont. Also on that trip I could order our meals in French and understand some of the small shops there like boucherie which is a butcher shop, fleur which is a flower shop, patisserie which is a pastry shop, and charcuterie which is the deli. Once I got to college I made the mistake of taking Spanish my freshman year because I knew it was more useful. That was a huge mistake because I ended up getting a D in that Spanish class and accidently kept writing in French on my Spanish tests. Spanish and French are very similar and there are some things I know in Spanish better than French but I understand the concept and grammar of French overall. After taking that Spanish class I soon learned that if Im going to continue a second language I need to continue French. I already have a strong base for it and I enjoy learning it, which is whats important. Spanish may be more useful but Im not as passionate about it. Yes, it can be frustrating when most people speak Spanish and I wish I could understand what theyre saying but it is so much more rewarding when I hear someone speaking French since its not as common. Then I can understand something not everyone else can and it makes it more fun when you do hear someone speaking French every once in a while and you can somewhat follow what theyre saying. Ideally I would like to learn both French and Spanish but for now I know the basics of both and want to continue expanding my French. I need to take what I learned in high school and try to pick it back up in college because I would hate for it to go to waste. Learning a new language is exactly like learning to read and write when youre little. It is the same concept and both are very frustrating but you want to learn so that you can
Comment [JR9]: So are you taking French now? Will you soon? You can use your conclusion to look ahead. Comment [JR8]: Interesting!

understand the world around you. It is easier to grasp something so new at a young age instead of learning a new language in high school because youre already comfortable with what you know. You learned to read and write in English and youve been practicing it since you were little, which is when youre most receptive to learning and retaining information. As we get older its harder to learn a new language and unless you stick with it then it can be easily forgotten. I dont want all my hard work to go to waste just because Im not practicing it. If we didnt practice reading and writing when we were younger then we wouldnt know how to today. Learning French was a huge part of my literacy and I can remember learning it and how hard it was. That is exactly how I learned to read and write today but of course I remember French being so difficult because it was something new and more recent. I dont think English is difficult because Ive been speaking it my whole life and practiced it everyday. I had a need for it because I wanted to understand and be able to communicate. If I were living in France then it would force me to continue the language and use it everyday. You learn to adapt to whats around you in order to survive.

Elizabeth, If you want to practice your French (or Spanish), theres an International Coffee hour once a month on campus that you can attend. As you revise this work, here are my suggestions: there needs to be a tighter focus and narrative here. This draft bounces around too much from why you chose this topic to French to Spanish to French, to regrets about not taking more etc. Id suggest that you focus on French, think about some of the sponsors of your French literacyteachers, ability to travel to Paris, cousin, etc.

and delve more in depth into all of that instead of bouncing around these ideas. This still feels like an early draft to me, where you are writing to figure out what you want to say. The next draft should help you articulate your main idea more. Im happy to talk through this in person with you. Please write a talk back.