Muradyan 1 Pargev Muradyan Professor H.

English 114 September 18th, 2013 Word Count: 1003 The New World On the first day of second grade, I was guided to class by my father. When he left, I felt abandoned as all the unknown faces stared, some kindly and others with eyes full of hate. I curiously looked around the classroom and noticed the strange symbols stuck on top of the chalkboard, there were about 26 of them. The teacher asked me to sit down, but I stayed silent; I did not comprehend a word she said. She had to communicate to me nonverbally for me to understand her, so she pulled up a chair for me to sit down. The class was working on a worksheet and filling words in the blank. I was given a similar one and tried to scribble letters and fill in the blanks, but I failed. I was in a new world, a world where English was spoken. Before the summer of 2002, my life was full of simplicity. I was a nave, Russian speaking first grader. I enjoyed the four-hour long school day and the rest of my time playing with friends, climbing things, and running around outside. But all those great childish things came to an end. My mother had announced that we were going to take a little trip to the United States of America for the summer.

Muradyan 2 I thought I would never have to learn English in the U.S. because I assumed my mother and I would leave the U.S. by the end of the summer. But I was wrong. I was enrolled in the second grade in September. I did not want to learn English and longed for the simple life that I had in Russia. Everyday in class, the teacher made everyone pronounce the vowels and consonants from the English alphabet. I felt uncomfortable pronouncing words like tree or the because there were no sounds like th in Russian and the R was pronounced differently in Russian. The Russian language had softer pronunciations of its words, vowels, and consonants than the English language. Kids repeated words after the teacher, but I could not even pronounce one word. It all sounded stupid and funny simultaneously. I did not even like the English language, so I did not have the desire to learn it. After school, I watched television whenever I had the chance to. I watched cartoons like SpongeBob because they were colorful and fun to watch. Watching such cartoons made me forget about eight-hour school days and learning things I did not want to learn. My parents were against me watching television because they knew I would have a lack of care for school and learning until our neighbor, a teacher, advised them that watching television would help in learning English. She explained to them that part of learning a new language requires listening and understanding. Now they have to let me watch more television, I thought. They let me watch television and I was slowly noticing familiar words, but I did not know their meanings. One day in school, the teacher called all the kids to sit down on the rug in a circle to practice the pronunciation of vowels and consonants, but I did not understand what she wanted. I stayed seated at my desk until a Russian speaking kid called me over to participate. On my way

Muradyan 3 to the circle, I managed to knock down a girls pencil box while pretending to read it. The teacher showed flashcards and made the kids say things like dog and the huh sound that the dog makes. She asked whats the name of this animal? And the kids would say its a dog! She would say, and what sound does the dog make? And the kids would make the sound. It was all very silly to me and I laughed instead of participating, but she forced me to participate. By the time I knew it, I was pronouncing R sounds and words like rabbit. I was actually starting to learn but my teacher left her job at the school for some reason. It had been six months since I started elementary school in the United States. My new teacher was conversing with my old teacher and she was talking about how I had learned to speak English. They called me over to their conversation and asked me questions to see how much I had learned. She asked me what my name was and more complicated questions. I responded clearly with my knowledge of English and smiled confidently. I knew I had finally learned English. Because of my ability to communicate using English, I had made a few friends and did not feel like the mysterious foreign kid. I was not as fluent as them, but I knew the English language well enough to play board games and other games that required reading and talking. In retrospect, I never thought that I would ever become a proficient English speaker. A language that I once hated was now the language I knew best. Learning English opened the door to living in the United States, a diverse and commercial country. I do not know how but I never had a bad grade in any of my English classes. In fact, my proficiency in English and literacy in writing have gotten me into a university where everyone speaks English. I am now a college student who comprehends English and communicates in English. My writing skills have also

Muradyan 4 improved. Instead of scribbling unknown things, I can now write essays and I can be considered a moderate essay writer. Living in the United States is an opportunity to be a successful person in life. Because I learned English at a young age, I do not have a heavy English accent like most foreigners do. People do not identify me as an immigrant. If I did not know English, I would have never stayed in the United States and become the person I am today, an English speaking college student who attends CSUN.