My Proficiency in English Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

My Proficiency in English - Essay Example Bilingual speakers have a great understanding of their new cultures and they are able to interact effectively with individuals from the foreign region. Speaking a different language enables an individual to gain communicative competence, therefore, emphasizing the role of circumstances and context under which language is used appropriately and accurately. Speaking a second language equips individuals with important skills that are required in a new-culture environment. Learning a second language contributes towards learning cultural practices of the community that speaks the specific language. Without a hint of doubt, English is a fascinating language – a language that, in my view, everyone should learn. This is especially considering that across the world, it is commonly spoken and used as a national Language. I may not have my statistics right but I presume English is only second to French in terms of popularity in the International arena. With relative confidence, I may sta te that in every single country, you will find at least one person that speaks the Queen’s dialect. Like Tan states, â€Å"I am not a scholar of English or literature† and my aim is not to write about the popularity of English as a language spoken internationally but to narrate how I got to learn English. Apart from the occasional English words that I heard from a neighbor who was a white man, my first formal encounter with English was in primary school. In grade one, we started being introduced to the English alphabet and simple English words. We were also taught how to count in English. Slowly but surely, I got to learn how to scribble English words on the little books we were given, sometimes without understanding what the words meant. My enthusiasm grew with time about learning new things and I kept trying to read and recall whatever I had learnt. At 13 years of age, I started reading with relative ease. One of the books I first read was Superman. Like Alexie state s, â€Å"Simple enough, I suppose. I cannot recall which particular Superman comic book I read, nor can I remember which villain he fought in that issue† (Alexie par. 1). Surprisingly, I realized that I understood whatever I read in the book. I realized once that the song the white man taught us was being taught to our superiors in class. It is then that I realized that we were learning the language of the white man. I knew then that I had overcome a barrier and was facing a world that previously was unknown to me. I could at least understand what the white man was saying to an extent. My interest in learning English continued to grow and I continued to seek and read more English books. I read several children’s books and articles including Learning to Read, an excerpt from The Autobiography of Malcolm X, and Mother Tongue by Amy Tan, and gradually learnt the English culture. Of course, I also learnt to read and write using the Chinese alphabet. By the time I was doing my eighth grade, my English was remarkable going by the comments that my teachers made. I often got rewards for scoring higher than my peers in English. This served as a good motivation to work even harder and learn more of the language. I credit my success in learning English at the elementary level to my long time English teacher and parents. Without the encouragement of these personalities, I really would not have learnt that much that I have today. In spite of the constraints that they experienced back then, my parents took it upon themselves to buy me the required textbooks for school and additional books to ensure that my ambition was actualized. I got to learn a lot of vocabularies in high school. Here, I met fellow enthusiasts some of whom were a challenge to me. They seemed to know the language more than I did. I learnt a lot from them and from my teachers. Learning literature in high school as part of the course work helped to a great extent. I encountered many words and corrected some errors I had been making in my speech