My Journey of Literacy
Mengling Y.
After reading the story of Connor's story about his personal attitude towards literacy and his individual experience of how to search for literacy, I find several factors that account for his acquisition of reading and writing skills. In terms of the experience of mine, these factors also help me figure sectional reasons out why I failed to have a favoring reading and writing process.
First is background. Conner said that he was born in a place where attach importance to literacy. In this way, it makes citizens concern about literacy naturally and inherently. As for me, I was growing up in a small county of Dali in Yunnan province. By the way, that not mean that my hometown doesn't accept the idea that the literacy is important. I mean the majority of people of my hometown understand the significance of literacy, but their awareness of how to become literate or how to help juveniles become literate was largely absent. In the course that I grow older, there was everybody around me would say that I should be a sensible child and be a good student, but no one gave me a book to read or told me that except obtaining knowledge from textbooks I should also get more from extracurricular books.
The second thing is guidance. Whatever you do a good guider is an undisputed evoker of interest that is the basis of motivation. In comparison to Conner, I'm not so lucky to have a wonderful guider like mother as my first teacher at my enlightenment stage. My father only completed 5 years of primary education who approximate an illiteracy. In order to make a living my mother who ever received middle school education left my hometown when I was about 4 years old. Moreover, those who around me seemed to have no idea about what the actual reading was. Therefore, I started my journey of reading very late.
Third is resources. Except my textbook I used, there almost weren't much of available books for me to read in my house all of days. Until I was in middle school I came to realize that there was something called library in my hometown. Besides, in my mind, the most sorts of in bookstores were countless materials for the full preparation of examinations. Thus, compare to Connor I was perfectly missed the chances to have the taste of reading at home, local library or bookstores.
Apart from the reasons I mentioned above, the other pivotal reason that takes responsibility for my little interest in reading is I had no idea how to choose and read a book properly. The first kind of book the I really involved in was too difficult for me to follow very well when I was in middle school. Those books like Water Margin that written in traditional Chinese and Sophie's World that talked about philosophy. When I entered high school I became a science student and I thought that there was not so meaningful and necessary for a science student to read a lot. Even if I had recited many quotes about the benefits reading like" books are the ladder of human progress", " book a house of gold" etc. Hence reading appeared at a low position in my past years.
But now, I come to aware that there is no excuse for me to neglect the importance of reading anymore. As a university student, I am lucky enough to encounter so many excellent new friends, classmates and teachers. I realize more and more that most shinning views of them are related to their better grasp of literacy than me. They can express themselves logically and clearly with convincing evidences that some the them are stored in their brains by reading anteriorly. Furthermore, I agree with Conner's viewpoint that it is impossible to be a totally literate person but whenever you speak, read and write you will get more then you already had. Recently, as a novice, I have been beginning to go further on my journey of literacy by starting reading more and writing more based on the suggestions from my teachers and friends and individual interest.
My Journey of Literacy
Re: My Journey of Literacy
(Reposting for visibility)
Mengling,
Your reflection between Connor’s story and your own describes everything I love about storytelling. Having the ability to identify, acknowledge, and apply the literacy skills you showed here already means you are well on your way towards English fluency. And do not worry in the future, sometimes I still lose favor for the reading and writing process. What is important is getting through those frustrating periods of doubt or dislike, so you can rediscover the passion that made you pursue language acquisition in the beginning of your journey studying English.
Please let me make some comments on your story here. I appreciated you structured your explanation. Breaking the conversation into your background, motivations, and resources gave me insight into multiple perspectives that you see every day. This is like being given photographs of your literacy journey. They may not be a complete video, but by cleverly choosing important moments in the form of frames you convey so much more understanding.
I feel more strongly that you achieved something impressive in your development now that I know you came from a region which did not consider literacy a priority, and your lack of supporting texts only reinforces that feeling. We sometimes forget here in America how privileged we are in terms of access to information. In this comparison, I am more like Connor. I had resources from the beginning.
I’m really happy that, despite a lack of early motivation, you have now seen the importance of literacy. Here in America we say, “knowledge is power,” and that is true of any pursuit in life. You got to university and became encouraged, instead of discouraged, by the higher level of literacy around you. That is something worth acknowledging. I can see how it would have been easy to fall into despair when faced with superiority. Those that can ignore negative emotions and pursue a better self in the face of challenge will succeed.
You are right to agree with Connor, we all have varying levels of literacy and no one person is perfect. Your example here contains some mistakes, but I have elected to not mention them. Issues of word choice or small semantic strangeness are not nearly as important right now as the fact that you have good form, style, and the message you meant to convey was communicated to us. At the risk of using a colloquial idiom: Don’t sweat the small stuff!
Keep reading, keep practicing, and look for books you have an interest in. Your brain will do the work of acquiring literacy. Thank you for this experience!
Mengling,
Your reflection between Connor’s story and your own describes everything I love about storytelling. Having the ability to identify, acknowledge, and apply the literacy skills you showed here already means you are well on your way towards English fluency. And do not worry in the future, sometimes I still lose favor for the reading and writing process. What is important is getting through those frustrating periods of doubt or dislike, so you can rediscover the passion that made you pursue language acquisition in the beginning of your journey studying English.
Please let me make some comments on your story here. I appreciated you structured your explanation. Breaking the conversation into your background, motivations, and resources gave me insight into multiple perspectives that you see every day. This is like being given photographs of your literacy journey. They may not be a complete video, but by cleverly choosing important moments in the form of frames you convey so much more understanding.
I feel more strongly that you achieved something impressive in your development now that I know you came from a region which did not consider literacy a priority, and your lack of supporting texts only reinforces that feeling. We sometimes forget here in America how privileged we are in terms of access to information. In this comparison, I am more like Connor. I had resources from the beginning.
I’m really happy that, despite a lack of early motivation, you have now seen the importance of literacy. Here in America we say, “knowledge is power,” and that is true of any pursuit in life. You got to university and became encouraged, instead of discouraged, by the higher level of literacy around you. That is something worth acknowledging. I can see how it would have been easy to fall into despair when faced with superiority. Those that can ignore negative emotions and pursue a better self in the face of challenge will succeed.
You are right to agree with Connor, we all have varying levels of literacy and no one person is perfect. Your example here contains some mistakes, but I have elected to not mention them. Issues of word choice or small semantic strangeness are not nearly as important right now as the fact that you have good form, style, and the message you meant to convey was communicated to us. At the risk of using a colloquial idiom: Don’t sweat the small stuff!
Keep reading, keep practicing, and look for books you have an interest in. Your brain will do the work of acquiring literacy. Thank you for this experience!