Amoruso 1

Paul Amoruso

Professor

ENC1101 0M06

Paper 3, Final Draft

November 27th, 2017

Lingua. Convey. Exchange.

Principals, judgments and familiarity are only a handful of attainments one must hold.

There is an immense array of forms of communication. The vast population is towering through

literacy and vocalization. Our knowledge is the frame to our future. Having been raised in an

old-fashioned Italian household, I found myself left out of the normal group of kids during

younger schooling. In northern Italy, pronunciation tends to be very formal with slight dialects.

On the southern side, pronunciation tends to be informal the majority of the time, with an ample

amount of dialects. I am Sicilian and Calabrese. Both located near the Southern tip. Although my

parents and grandparents taught me Italian and English during my younger years, I obtained not

only a Sicilian dialect but also a Calabrese dialect with the added lingua of English.

Off the bat, my English and literacy skills were below average. When it came time for

spelling test my grades would drop in an instant. If I were handed a math test, I easily finished it

with little hesitation on the correctness of my work. When I was handed an essay topic, it would

take me over an hour to mentally decide what the title would be, where I would begin, how I

would start an outline, etc. By the time I answered those questions, I found myself out of time.

English in my mind was as if I were given a one-thousand-piece puzzle and told to put it
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together. I could envision the words and say the sentences aloud, though when it came to

physically holding the pencil in my hand and pen the thoughts of my mind, I found myself

empty. It wasnt until my years in high school that I was taught tips and hints that felt as if they

were a key to my literacy thoughts.

The process that I have gone through on my literacy journey has been extremely eye

opening and unbelievably impressive, in my own eyes. If you were to meet me when I was in

elementary, and tell me to write a single paragraph, I would take forever just to write a couple of

sentences. It was like I had permanent writers block; I use to be intimidated on what to write,

because of the thought of having to sit at a desk and try to force myself to think about how to put

some words together. But eventually, in high school it was then when I was shown by a great

teacher that writing doesnt have to be a hard task, but rather, a skill that just needs some

improvement. That is when I started looking for new ways to improve my skills, finding

techniques that I can use to my advantage, like writing transition words, and phrases to assist me

in having my writing flow. Therefore, even though I might not have considered myself a

proficient writer, I still believe that it is important to know that we are all able to be great at

anything as long as we are determined to do better and to not confine ourselves in our own

bubble of barriers.

Having two younger sisters, the eldest of the two, has a brilliant mind in which she can

think, write, read and pen the words down in less than an hour. However, my youngest sister

tends to take after my literacy lethargy. Together, we formed a technique in which we all have a

black book which we pen down quotes, techniques, ideas, phrases, terms, definitions, literacy
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rules, etc. All of our struggles are eased through this black book. When we come across a brain

fart or writers block, or confuse literacy tools we simply open the book and quickly turn our

struggles into a positive atmosphere. Though granted, it is time consuming; it however, saves

triple the time when the writing process begins. The book is my teacher, in hence, I am teaching

myself how to process through my thoughts and form essays and/or simple paragraphs.

How can a bilingual student grasp a new language? How can one advance? What

psychological mechanism must one use in order to change their thought process? Better yet, is

there any correlation between bilingual students and lower/higher grades? One language sets

you in a corridor for life. Two languages open every door along the way was once quoted by

psycholinguist Frank Smith. Another quote was then stated by poet and novelist, Natalie Barney,

in which Being bilingual is like having a wife and a mistress. One can never be sure of either.

At a young age, English class had brought about low grades. As Ive gone through the years,

with the help of my black book Ive had a complete bounce back in my literacy capabilities.

With the right concept, and mind set, and understanding Ive realized it is possible to turn in

inability to a feasible ability.

Without language, one cannot talk to people and understand them; one cannot share

their hopes and aspirations, grasp their history, appreciate their poetry, or savor their songs was

once written by Nelson Mandela. With a powerful quote, came a powerful man. Mandela was a

political leader, philanthropist, and served as President of South Africa. Ive included this

segment to prove a theory of mine: Literacy through multi-linguals brings the equivalent amount

of change than do individuals of one fluency. There is no one right way to do a task. If the task
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were to write an essay, there would always be an equal force field. If the task were to campaign a

message to the world, it could just as easily be done. As in the case of Nelson Mandela, his origin

of nationality was not an interference of the message he communicated to the world. In my case,

my Italian nationality, does indeed prove beneficial times and times over. Everything I pen onto

paper, stems from parts and pieces of my Italian language. Sometimes, I think of a sentence in

my head in English, and it just doesnt sound correct. I then translate it to Italian and retranslate

back to English, and it just happens that the rewording made all the difference.

Throughout the growth of my literacy development, although I am fortunate, I often find

myself comparing myself to others. Although my parents had different struggles throughout their

childhood, I often wonder If my parents were English teachers, would I then be at a better

place when it came to writing? Or would I still find myself struggling even with that advantage?

Another inspirational quote, which is also located in my black book comes again from Nelson

Mandela, I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave

man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear, or There is no passion to

be found playing small in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living.

Those were my motivation to keep on striving. To pull out any bit of grit I might have inside of

myself, and prove to those around me, that I too, have a chance to become a powerful writer. I

found that communication was the gears in my brain that in which, became my strongest tool.

One black book which my sisters and I created has taken me from a below average English

student, to a student who figured out a way to use his weakness into a building brick of ideas.
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It always seems impossible until its done was once stated by Mandela. It was a funny

quote as I tend to always needs some type of motivation. I find, although I use my black book I

tend to work best before I eat lunch. Lunch is the motivation to my writing. Time was, and is still

one of my hardest barriers to overcome when it comes to English grammar, or essays. From

childhood, it has been a struggle. Over the years, Ive had to reinvent my techniques in order to

advance my skills. Between nine oclock in the morning to twelve oclock noon, I seem to have a

self-motivation to focus and put all my brainpower into writing when I am undistracted and in

know that within hours I will be rewarded of a delicious lunch. Writing in general seemed

impossible to me until I began to achieve my most wanted goal. A goal to better myself when it

came to any English class. Every individual has a challenge or niche of their own, it is until they

dedicate their brainpower into solving it, that one will realize it was never impossible. Granted

the issue may take longer than expected to heal in a sense of changing the niche to a positive,

however, with time it will be done. I might not have fit in as normal while in my younger years

of schooling, however my Italian knowledge of language has been on my side as an advantage, it

just took a little longer than I intended to realize it. The creation of my black book has taken

my thought process and mental mechanisms to run smoothly in all I do.