Alshammari 1

Albara Khalid Alshammari ENGL 1101 Mrs. Debarati Dutta 10/14/2012 Final draft

Literacy Memoir Keep learning I heard this command repeatedly during my entire life. Historically, my family is not educated as the definition for these days. I am from a tribe called Shammar that ruled Saudi Arabia and parts of Jordan, Syria, and Iraq in its golden age on the 19th century. It is one of the largest tribe in in the Middle East with an estimated 5.7 million members. Around 2 million live in Saudi Arabia and 3 million in Iraq and the rest in Syria, Jordan, Kuwait, and Qatar. People are valued and ranked as a class in the community based on the tribe first. For example, If someone wants to get married from my sister, the first question we ask is which tribe the guy is belonged to. Moreover, which clan he is from. In the Arabian peninsula it is common to write the tribe name as the last name. Knowing the last name in Saudi Arabia of someone can tell where he is from, which accent he speaks and his/her cultures and customs. My grandfather was a Bedouin as well as my father. My father left his family on the 70s when he was around 17 years old. He moved from the north to the east cost of Saudi Arabia Where the oil industries were located. In that time, the industries of oil were increasing rapidly, so there was a high demand on the Saudi work force. My father applied to ARAMCO in order to get a job. They tested only his writing and reading skills in Arabic. He had lower than a high school degree but his ambition was big. He worked for ARAMCO for 3 years. During that time,

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he learned how to speak, write, and read in English without taking any classes. He was successful on doing his duties toward the company. In contrast, he was also successful on doing his duties toward himself such as learning English and completing his high school degree on the same time. Later on, he moved to a new city that was just built. It is Al-Jubail industrial city. This city has changed my fathers life 180 degrees. Everything was changed with him even using the restroom was something new! Jubail Industrial City is the largest civil engineering project in the world today. The city was designed and built by an American company which used the highest standers that ever exist in the world. From every aspects in the city, everything in a high quality standard. The education system was totally different from other cities in Saudi Arabia. the schools there are very advanced technologically. Jubail has influenced me and my family a lot. Living in a modern city with a verity of people has influenced us in many ways especially when were Bedouins. In the morning, there are more than 50% of international people while in the night it is the opposite. In contrast, all the Saudis there are from every part of Saudi. However, when my father came to jubail, he was not well stable financially, so he challenged and crossed all the barriers that faced him during his life; he completed his high school degree there while he was working in SABIC. When I was child I was forced by my mother to do many things that were related to education in general. I learned reading in Arabic around four years old. Quran was my source of learning. Furthermore, it taught me a strong Arabic language. Quran was a challenge for the people of Quraish. Quraish is an Arabian tribe which our prophet Mohammad from. God challenged them by its Arabic Level. No one could do one sentence like it. However, learning Arabic by Quran is good idea and it prepares the learner for the future with a strong background in Arabic and Islam. Reading Quaran helps the reader to be more religiously but not as good as

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memorizing the whole book. My younger brother spent more than 5 years to memorize all. "Whoever reads the Quran, memorizes it, and acts upon it, on the Day of Judgment he will be clad (by angels) with a crown of light, its light is like the sunlight and his parents will be clad with two garments better than the whole world and whatever it contains." So they would amazingly ask: "What action did we do to deserve this?" They will be told: "Because your son memorized the Quran". (Al-Haakim) by the prophet Mohammad. In contrast, I learned writing when I was five years old. It was my favorite subject. In that time, I was in a Kindergarten where my mom used to teach. I tried to be in her class, but she refused for many reasons. One of them is that she wanted me to be responsible since I was a child. I have cried for couple of weeks but nothing worked. She insisted to put me in another class. Nevertheless, I had a note books that teach writing the Arabic letters. My mom used to give me extra homework and games! She used to play with me and my brothers many games. More than 90% of the games were teaching me indirectly. For example, we used to gather in a room and each one of us has his own paper and pin. Then one of us says a letter then the competition starts. Everyone should write an animal name, a vegetable, something does not move, and many other things. The rule was to start with the letter that was said. Those kinds of games raised my speed on writing when I was a child. In that time, my father who liked to fix everything in our house by himself influenced me. In the first grade my mother found screwdrivers in my bag before I got to school. My habits have led to who I am right now. Reading Newspaper as a habit have let me to become a faster reader in Arabic also it raised my knowledge level. Reading newspaper is not important as reading from books. Books are the real reading. Books were not my favorite habits for many reasons. The most important one is because it is long and all about one thing mostly

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while the articles are short. However, I used to read some books and articles that belonged for only particular people. It was not a good thing to read and view one side of anything. It is better to read different views in order to build the correct ideas. I started reading others opinion but I did not like it. I was stick to my view whenever I read something different. The reason was when I read the other side, I never believed their opinion or tried while I am reading so I was kind of critic not analyst as I should be. During high school, I used to give a speech once at least per week. The ability of giving speeches in Saudi is important as reading and writing here in the US, so I consider it as an important aspect of literacy. In fact, it was more important than reading and writing few centuries ago. People used to debate a lot by poems. They do not prepare for these kinds of events. They used to say their poems extempore On the other hand, technology has the biggest part of influencing me throughout my life. I use my skills in reading and writing on the internet more than the school. I have enrolled in many forums that I have passion to. Being connected to world network improved my abilities in reading and writing. Moreover, it shaped my way of thinking and understanding the world. Nowadays, the internet is better, faster. I almost can reach any person on the internet. Being connected to the internet has the made the earth as a big village. It is possible to reach any idea or answers that someone is looking for. Being surrounded by an Engineering family has motivated me since I was a child. seeing each one of my family successful in different fields has put a high expectation on me. I am mixed of my fathers and my mothers ability. I learned from my father how to play with numbers and from my mother how to design and color them. On the other hand, I learned from

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my school a lot. I reached in high school Calculus II while the American are not required to take Calculus I. Furthermore. I studied Physics one and tow and many other high classes but there were only one problem which is studying in Arabic. I graduated from high school with 3.97 GPA which allowed me to get accepted in SABIC scholarship program. I used to dream days and nights to get this opportunity due to the successful future that will be provided by SABIC. However, my journey started on 2011 when I came to Austin Texas. I did not know how to speak or write but I knew how to read without understanding what does the text say. I improved my reading by memorizing vocabulary. And my writing-by-writing as what I am doing now. Nevertheless, I was with another 15 Saudi engineers who lived in a private dorm and in the same floor also. We shared all classes together except the English classes. It was a challenge to be with the smartest friends that I ever met. I used to prepare myself for the science classes because there were competitions every day. However, it was a hard transition from Arabic to English. All what I learned in Arabic was kind of useless. Even the numbers were different, so i had to work hard to catch up the right track. I have been watching cartoon since I came to the US. I heard it is better to learn languages from the kids stuff All in all, my story with my family has a lot of things that define our literacy. Since we were Bedouins until I am on the other part of the world spending only 17 hours by plane! My family went through huge changes within 60 years. Our literacies are way different from each other. Now we live in better place and life.

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