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Natalie Bedrosian
Professor DerOhanessian
English 114 A
9 October 2014
My Own Journey with Reading and Writing
A man ought to read just as his inclination leads him; for what he reads as a task will do
him little good. As Samuel Johnson once stated, people should read not out of punishing
obligation, but rather for a passion of learning and to use the knowledge to help others. My
personal reading and writing experience has been a positive and encouraging one, as I have had
many people who have influenced me to improve my linguistic skills. From the stage of
development for my organization skills with my high school teachers, to improving upon my
literary skills by the assistance of my brother, they all prepared me to help my mother as
wholeheartedly as Amy Tan does so in her story Mother Tongue.
Beginning my interest in eighth grade, I gained my confidence in writing and won second
place for writing a book in Armenian. My Armenian teacher explained to us that we needed to
write a fifteen to twenty page book about any story. In the beginning, I thought it was almost
impossible to write that much. I thought long and hard about what to write and what came to
mind was to write about a true story that occurred when I was a child. My mother told me the
story about how I managed to open the backyard gate and disappear when I was barely four
years old, so I wrote about the police officer who went door to door and asked if they were
missing a child. I thought that would be a great story to tell. It took me a while to figure out what
to write about but as I went on the words and sentences came out easily and naturally. I made
sure to use concrete details and make it as interesting to read as possible. Of course, I did not

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write a perfect twenty page story in one draft; it was a lengthy process but was well worth it
when I got to read my finished product that I had put so much effort on in front of parents,
students, and teachers.
My high school English teacher influenced me immensely because she helped me
throughout my journey of writing. During the beginning of the school year, I turned in a
narrative essay. She gave me great feedback by telling me that the structure and organization in
my writing was lacking and I had been repetitive in my writing. I never realized until she told
me, and I am grateful that she did because I would have never known. I am also grateful to have
had her as a teacher because she really motivated me and pushed me to do my best.
My brother, Peter, is a huge influence on me because he is always reading or writing. One
time I told him I wanted to read a book from the library but forgot to go, yet the next day, he
comes home with a book in his hand and gives it to me. I thought it was thoughtful of him to take
the time out of his day to get me a book I had mentioned to him. He always tells me the more he
reads, the more his writing improves and clearly it shows from the essays I proofread for him and
the grades he receives from school. Although he is younger than me, I look up to him in a way
and I am definitely a proud big sister. My brother and I were very fond of childhood books.
Every time we went to the store, we flipped through pages of books and make my mom buy us a
book we both preferred. By the time we got older we had a huge stack of children's books and
what looked like a library in my room. I remember many times we would sit down together and
as I would read he would follow and ask many questions through out the book. When we got
older, we decided to donate the books because we did not read them anymore.
The first time I read Mother Tongue by Amy Tan was about a week ago. I thought it
was an intriguing story and I can relate to it because Tan mentions how her mother is an
immigrant and others think her mother's language is not perfect and her accent is difficult to

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understand. My mother is also an immigrant and although he thinks her accent is horrible, I
disagree. Sometimes she uses the wrong words in sentences but everyone makes mistakes and
nobody sounds the same. I can understand her mother's frustration because my mother feels the
same.
My mother also asks me to write something for her when she does not know the correct
way of forming sentences together or does not know the spelling of a word. Almost every time
she sends a simple text message it takes her a while and eventually asks for my help. Other
times, when she needs to send or respond to an e-mail, she asks for my assistance. I do not blame
her because if I put myself in her shoes, I can not imagine how hard it is coming from another
country and learning a different language. It is a challenging task and cannot be done by many.
Also, I enjoyed reading Mother Tongue because of the amount of detail she adds in her
writing. Amy Tan does a great job at engaging the reader and enraptures the audience about what
will happen next. The fact that Amy Tan, who wrote a book solely for her mother, touched my
heart. Her mother reads often and most of the time does not understand what she is reading, so it
was a profound gesture on her part.
Reading and writing has been a positive experience for me because it has been the reason
of bonding with my brother at an early age, and has been the reason I wrote my first book in
Armenian. It has given me the ability to help my mother, and it has developed my language in a
similar vain to Amy Tan. In conclusion, my experiences in reading and writing allow me to
express my thoughts and ideas in a more articulate fashion.

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Works Cited
Tan, Amy. The Opposite of Fate: A Book of Musings. New York: Putnam, 2003. Print.