Luke PAGE 5 Gena LukeLiteracy NarrativeUWRT 1101My Astonishing Literacy JourneyMaking the transition from Egypt to America was indeed one that required a multitude of attributes that would ensure my success as an American. Reading, writing and learning the language are prime examples of the attributes needed to maintain a healthy social and interactive lifestyle as an American. Although the transition was difficult, my reading and writing skills have remarkably improved as a result of my consistent efforts to read on a daily basis. Let us begin by indicating my background in education as well as pinpointing the steps that were taken to enhance my reading and writing skills as an American.Growing up I lived in a family home in Egypt, it consisted of a ten floor condo building with all my family. That is considered to be the norm in Egypt, families live together and if you have a son you can build on to the condo building where the son and his wife would live. Blossoming in that environment I had a lot of cousins, uncles, and aunts around me therefore I learned how to speak at an early age. You were never alone; the door was always open for anyone to come in. One of my favorite childhood memories would have to be hearing my mom sing, her soothing angel like voice that comforted me. Im pretty sure I was singing about heartbreaks and love songs before I was even potty trained. I came across an article on The Guardian website about a book that claims singing to children helps develop language skills by Sally Goddard Blythe, a consultant in neuro-developmental education. According to Blythe, listening to, and singing along with rhymes and songs uses and develops both sides of the brain. Negro-Imaging has shown that music involves more than just centralised hotspots in the brain, occupying large swathes on both sides (Hill). My moms singing made me want to sing along so by the time I was three I had remembered the lyrics. I have an incredibly good memory and I believe thats where it started. My grandma once told my mom Ive never seen a child thats this advanced for their age. I would always ask questions and want to know why everything is the way it is, including the things I saw on television. I believe the reason I was skeptical at that age was because I would always listen to the conversations my mom would have so it became natural of me to want to understand what she was talking about. My mother has been the biggest contributor for my ability to read, write and compose; she was a stay at home mom so all her time was focused on teaching my brother and me. When the time came around for me to start kindergarten, she had to prepare me for a mandatory placement test that identified if one was educated enough to be accepted into the private school. My mom would repeatedly make me write the same letter and words over and over again. I learned the Arabic alphabet by my mom asking me to repeat after her then respond with a word that started with the corresponding letter. For example she would say A then Id reply A, apple in addition my older brother Habib would irritate me by answering my mom before I would even get a chance so it created a competition between me and my brother who can respond first. My parents put my brother in an International General Certificate of Secondary Education (IGCSE) School which is the highest level of education you can get in Egypt, while I had to go to private Egyptian school. It wasnt that my parents didn't want me to be smart and succeed but since I was a female in my country I only needed a general education because at the end of the day I would only get married and become a stayed home mom just like my mother, my grandmother, and the generations before that. Women simply dont work in my country and being a Christian as well as a female I had a very slim chance of being hired anywhere. In Egypt women are seen to only bear children and take care or the house. Christians are a minority in Egypt so were get discriminated against simply because of our religion. Experiencing that reminded me of Sue Monk Kidds novel The Secret Life of Bees when Zach told Lilly he wanted to be a lawyer and she responded by saying, Ive just never heard of a Negro lawyer, thats all. Youve got to hear of these things before you can imagine them (Kidd 121). My role in life was set for me right when I was born, the same way Zachs was and also the same way in the 1960s black womens role were to be housekeepers for white families. Let us now reflect upon one of my biggest, most life changing moments.My life completely changed when I was about eight years old when my parents told me we were moving to the United States. At that moment it was the turning point of my existence, I no longer had to conform to my ignorant society. Moving to the land of the free I knew I had an opportunity to be whatever I desired, there was a whole new world for me. Making the transition wasnt easy as I expected it to be, as a matter of fact learning English and conforming to the American culture was the hardest thing I had to do. I remember my petite blonde haired and blue eyed third grade English second language (ESL) teacher, Mrs.Snow; I had never seen anyone with those features before. I remember the first day of class all of my peers stood up to say the Pledge of Allegiance and I didn't understand what they were doing, I thought they were praying. I was obligated to learn a whole new language and culture, I looked different than everyone else and could barely try a full sentence. In Mrs. Snows class, we did many activities surrounding literacy. We religiously read books, had flashcards with vocabulary words, practiced writing and had weekly spelling tests. It was difficult for me to keep up with the class pace because it took me a longer time to figure out the definition for things. Every time I would read anything I had a dictionary with me and when I stumbled on a word, I would look it up and write it down and then continuously read over those words until I knew them. This is a connection I have with Malcolm X as he wrote in his excerpt, Learning to Read I began copying.In my slow, painstaking, ragged handwriting, I copied into my tablet everything printed on that first page, down to the punctuation marks.I believe it took me a day. Then, aloud, I read back, to myself, everything I'd written on the tablet. Over and over, aloud, to myself (X). We were assigned to choose a book of our choice and read it aloud to Mrs. Snow outside of the class. I dreaded my turn because I was extremely shy and hated the one on one attention. I was reading simple books at first and was so frustrated because I wanted to be able to read the same books as my peers in my regular class. My mom saw this frustration and with her broken English she couldnt help so she got me a tutor. My tutor was an Egyptian American lady therefore it was extremely helpful that she would relate some things to our culture in a way I would easily understand. I read every single night, wrote the words I didn't understand them then studied them. I repeated the process of reading and writing down words I didnt understand for about a year. Between Mrs. Snow assignments and my tutor, it was astonishing how much I had learned. Being extremely competitive I didnt want to be in the ESL class anymore because while my regular class would go do fun activities like art, gym, and dance, I had to go to ESL. I continued to read and focus on the way I pronounced certain words and letters, this improved both my writing and reading skills. It was challenging at first because I had to start paying attention to small details in my speech. With my tutor, we would practice writing letters, reading chapter books and grammar skills. Mrs. Snow noticed my improvement and told me that I was able to take this test and if I pass it then I would be placed out of ESL. I was extremely excited for that opportunity which only made me study harder and learn endless vocabulary. At the beginning of my fifth grade year I took the test and placed out of ESL. I was extremely excited to start a new chapter in middle school without having to take anymore ESL classes.Throughout middle school it was the time for me to learn the culture, I was able to speak pretty well and could pretty much understand everyone. I struggled a little with grammar but over time it improved, I continuously read no matter how short or long a book is. Surprisingly, I didn't have an accent, I was speaking as if I was an American. I was able to make friends and learn more from them about their culture, I even learned the Pledge of Allegiance. Going into my adolescence years is when I was introduced to a cell phone. I was in eighth grade when I got my first phone. I was absolutely fascinated by it and once I figured out how to use it, it wasn't going out of my hands. I started texting all of my friends then went online and made a Facebook. By using the internet I was able to connect with my old friends and family from Egypt. I was reading way less and used all my free time messaging friends and playing games on the computer. I started using short cuts for words for example instead of writing you I would write just a U and instead of writing for I would write it as 4. I came across an article that I completely agree with because I was one of the children that social media affected. Children's literacy is being damaged by social media, headmasters claim. They say pupils are too distracted by sites such as Facebook and Twitter to bother to read a book. As a result, thousands are poor spellers and have little understanding of grammar (Barrow). I had to catch myself wasting so much time on social media and I recently just deleted my Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat. After years of wasted time I finally realized that it wasnt worth it. My journey of literacy was challenging and rough, I am extremely grateful that my parents and my teachers gave me an extra push. It was dumbfound how quickly I was able to catch on to the English language but it came with a lot of hard work. I was able to learn two languages at a young age and was given the opportunity to live my life freely. Im particularly blessed to live in a country that provided me with all the resources I needed to learn their language. My literacy only continues to grow.

Works Cited

Hill, Amelia. "Singing to Children May Help Development of Language Skills." The Guardian. N.p., n.d. Web. 7 July 2015 .

Kidd, Sue Monk. The Secret Life of Bees. New York: Viking, 2002. Print.

Becky, Barrow. "Facebook and Twitter 'harm Pupils Literacy'

Mail Online. Associated Newspapers, 15 Nov. 2013. Web. 8 July 2015.

X, Malcolm. "Learning to Read." (n.d.): n. pag. 15 July 2015. Web.