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Pao Coronel
Professor Filbeck
English 091
9 December 2014
My Linguistic Childhood
As of today, there are currently 6,900 known distinct languages spoken throughout the
world (How Many). Its ironic how people are supposed to be relatively similar through genetics,
but not everyone communicates with one language. Learning a new dialect is a very challenging
thing to accomplish. One would have to understand the meaning of the languages characters in
detail. Changing the way one speaks also effects on how words are pronounced within the
language. Growing up, I had to face all these obstacles as I studied three different dialects at the
same time.
One of the three languages I had to learn was Mandarin Chinese. In my opinion, this was
probably the most difficult language that I had to learn. I had to study how to pronounce words
and read Chinese characters and the tone of the words made it even more difficult to pronounce
them. I remember the time when I had to go in front of the class to reenact a dialogue from a
book that we had to read. I was really scared because my Chinese teacher was pretty anal about
getting the pronunciation of every character right. What made it worse was I had to memorize
the whole entire dialogue and I wasnt allowed to read it off the book nor get any help from the
teacher. When it was time for me to start the dialogue, I had to introduce myself and the passage
that I was reading because it was mandatory. As I was doing my introduction, my teacher
stopped me right away because I said the title of the dialogue wrong. At that moment, I was
thinking to myself Man this sucks! I already got points off and I havent even started the

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dialogue yet. How much worse could this get? It was worse than I had imagined. I was so
nervous that I got mental blocked and forgot how the dialogue went. I started rambling out
random words that didnt even make any sense. It was as if I was speaking gibberish in front of
the class. I always looked up to the ceiling trying to remember how the dialogue went, but it
never came back. I realized that I wasnt going to do well for that oral test so I tried to make an
excuse and told my teacher that I had to use the restroom. Luckily, my teacher let me use the
restroom and asked someone else to go. I guess he knew that I wasnt prepared for it. As I made
my way to the restroom, I tried to think of how the dialogue went and after a couple of minutes;
it finally came back to me. Its like one of those light bulb images that light up on top of your
head when something comes up. When I got back to class, I asked my teacher if I could try
again. I had that desperate look on my face, knowing that I wont mess it up this time.
Surprisingly, he gave me a chance to prove myself that I knew the passage and let me redo the
test. I slowly went up front, muttering to myself the hardest parts of the dialogue and how I cant
mess up this time. I finally made it to the front of the class and I started my introduction once
again. I recited the dialogue, with confidence this time, and managed to make it to the end. After
finishing, I didnt even care about the grade that I got, the only thing that I cared about was when
my teacher had that faint smile on his face, giving me the assurance that I did well. As I sat back
down to my seat, I exhaled as if a hurricane came out from my nose causing a relief.
English was another language I had to study when I was growing up. In the grade school
that I attended to, I had to learn English not because I wanted to, but because it was mandatory to
do so. I remember the time when the class was reading a book called Shiloh. It was a novel that
we only read in class. Half of the time, we would be reading the novel and we would discuss the
main events that happened in the book. My English teacher didnt want to do all the reading by

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herself so she assigned popcorn reading. I hated this; I disliked popcorn reading. As a matter of
fact, I disliked anything that had to do with reading. I found it pointless to read a book in a
language that more than half of the people in my country didnt speak. Whenever I would get
called on to read, I wouldnt know where the last person left off because I never paid attention.
My teacher was getting really frustrated by me to a point where she asked me to go outside of the
classroom so she could talk to me. She then asked me, Why are you not following with the
class? Do you know that half of your grade in this class is from reading? and I replied
I just dont like the class and I find reading meaningless, she then gave me this
disappointing look and said
Pao, reading is something you do everywhere in your life. Its not something you can
stop doing once youre older. Knowing how to read makes you look smart and professional.
Even though its in a different language, youll be able to use it later on in life. Being trilingual,
meaning you speak three languages, can get you many opportunities with finding a job when
youre older. When she told me all this, it actually made sense for me even though I was young.
I realized that being able to read in a different language is actually pretty cool. People would be
jealous of me if I spoke three languages. After reflecting on this event, I told my teacher that I
was sorry and that I would try harder in her class.
Last but not least, I had to learn my countrys own language, Tagalog. When I was
studying this language, I struggled as well, but not as much compared to the other two. The main
reason that it wasnt as a hard for me to learn Tagalog was because everyone around me spoke
the language. Even though I struggled at first, I managed to connect myself with the language
because I thought of it as something that was a part of me. Every time I would think, I would be
talking to myself in Tagalog, not Chinese nor English. I remember when we had these cultural

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festivals around my area and I would be there to participate. People would be wearing these
tribal costumes and we would have loud music playing in the background. I would dance to the
song and sing along as if I knew what the lyrics were even if I didnt. Everyone that I spoke to
knew Tagalog, making it a lot easier for me to learn the language because I used it on a daily
basis. Some of my friends didnt go to the same school as I did and they didnt speak English or
Chinese so in order for me to talk to them, I only spoke Tagalog. I actually believe that culture
plays a big part in learning a new language because it will always be a part of me no matter
where I go.
Learning a new language can be very challenging. As I reflect upon my past, I realized
how much it has benefited me to learn three different languages. Even though I didnt like
Mandarin at first, learning it was a big factor because looking at the economy right now, China is
doing well with the trading industry and they speak Mandarin. As for English, when I migrated
here to the United States, I didnt have to learn English from scratch, making it easier for me to
adapt with the people I met. Tagalog will always be my favorite language because even though I
moved to the United States, I can still connect myself to my own culture using Tagalog as a
connector. Im most definitely proud of being trilingual.

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Works Cited
"How Many Languages in the World." How Many. 1 Sept. 2011. Web. 14 Sept. 2014.
<http://1howmany.com/how-many-languages-in-the-world>.
"Mandarin Chinese Pinyin Chart with Audio." Yabla Chinese. 1 Jan. 2014. Web. 14 Sept. 2014.
<https://chinese.yabla.com/chinese-pinyin-chart.php>.
"The History of Tagalog." Language Translation, Inc. 1 Jan. 2014. Web. 14 Sept. 2014.
<http://www.languagetranslation.com/translation/languages/tagalog-translation4.html>.