In the following lines I
will review some clips from my L2 literacy experience. I learned English at the beginning by listening
and speaking without any actual writing or reading. Unlike Arabic where all the
words pronounced as they are written, English was a shock for me. I learned how
to say some words in English, but I did not know how to write them or even read
them in different contexts. The following story will highlight some of these
literacy stages that I have been going through before I start reading and
writing correctly.
I was with my brother fighting in back seat in the car in
our way home from a family occasion. Dad and mom were trying to calm us down as
they were talking and we were disturbing them. After a loud shout from dad, my
brother just sat back and suddenly went into deep sleep. Mom and dad were still
talking about some travel plans the next week. I came closer and asked:
“Mom, are we travelling somewhere?”
Dad turned his head and gave me a sharp look and said” when
I talk to your mom, do not interrupt us and do not ask unless you are asked to
ask”
I laid back to the seat trying to cry silently so they would
not feel my tears. I knew if they discovered that I was crying, then more tough
speech I would hear. A silence spread in
the car, and then suddenly a new language was used between mom and dad.
I wiped my tears and my runny nose with my sleeves. Of course
I did not dare to ask any more questions but I listened very carefully.
“What is going on, I said inside? What are they saying?”
The language was not Italian that I used to hear and neither
French. It was English, but that time I did not know what English was. I
listened and listened till I got sleep.
The other day I woke up and the first thing I asked my mom
was “what were you saying with dad last night?
Mom was not that different from dad. She told me not to ask
about her talk with dad. So I immediately, replied “no, mom I want to know the
secretive language you used with my dad in the car last night”.
Laughter
Mom liked what I said about the secretive language and then
she smiled and answered my question “it was English”. The word was very
difficult for me even to pronounce. However, it caught my attention. This scene
of mom and dad talking in English was repeated many times. Especially, in the
car, where they have to say things they do not want us to understand. And as usual, I was listening carefully to
every single word.
During this young age, I was having some Kung Fu classes and
it happened that an English boy joined that class. The poor English boy was
surrounded with Arabic speakers, who did not understand him and he did not
understand the too. He was just looking and smiling. I was looking at him too
as an alien came to earth. Only my
teacher was talking to him in English I was listening. I felt so sorry for that
boy who was lonely all the time. One day I asked mom to teach some English phrases
to talk to that boy. I wanted to know
his name, his age, his country and many things.
Mom was laughing and said “Ok, each day I will teach a
phrase or a sentence”
I jumped from happiness. My first sentence was “what is your
name?”
That day when I was supposed to talk to that boy, I was very
happy carrying with me a very long sentence. All the way to the club I was
revising that sentence. And when I arrived, I ran to that boy and immediately
asked him “what is your name?” I did not
pronounce it correctly but he understood me. Honestly, I was reading the Arabic
transcription of the word that I wrote it by pen on my hand. The boy was very
happy; a big smile was drawn on his checks. His white face became very red as
the blood was pushed up from his heart to his face. “Anwar” he replied. I was
amazed because his name was Arabic. My happiness that day was indescribable.
That very long sentence opened the door for me to learn something new. I
learned about my new friend. The funny thing in this part of the story is that
I was asking him the same questions every ten minutes and he had the same
answer. I was practicing English with him, I was very proud of myself and could
not wait till I tell my mom about the rich information I got by this question.
The next day, I went to my class with another sentence. This
time, it was “How are you?”. Oh my God. I have two sentences. So When I arrived
to the class, I asked “what is your name” then when he answered I asked “How
are you”. My English friend was very happy that finally there was someone who
could speak with him. I sat that day with him asking these two questions and he
answered happily. I felt that I have a secret language like mom and dad that
the other kids did not understand. However, I did not keep it secret as they
did. I taught these two questions to the other kids so they could ask him.
Anwar was very happy even if he had to answer all those kids many times of the
same question. You know what I did next;
I asked the other kids to play a game that each of us ask
these questions while the other one would answer. We were doing this activity
during the break time, when my teacher noticed this play. He called my name so
loud:
“Samah, come here”
I thought that I did something wrong. Hardly, I carried my
foot on the ground when I went to him.
“Yes, sir” I answered.
“What are you doing with the kids?” teacher said.
“Just playing with English” I replied.
“Oh, great. I think you are doing a good job” teacher said.
I felt very relieved and smiled till my lips touched my
ears. Then he added, “instead of asking
the same question and having the same answer, what if I give a very magic
question that has many answers each time” smiling face.
“magic, I love magic yaaay” I was jumping like a frog.
“what is this” my teacher said, then he added “ Samah, this
is the magic question “what is this”
Whenever you want to ask about any object, just refer to it
and say “what is this?”.
I could not believe what my teacher was saying; I was
embarrassing to ask him about the meaning of his magic question. Then my
teacher said, “Would you like to try this question” yes, I replied. Before
going to the boy, I practiced “what is this?” many times before we headed to
the boy.
I got closer to Anwar who was holding his sword and getting
ready to the sword session. I referred with my little figure to the sword and
asked “what is this?” (My teacher was
observing little further from us). “Sword” Anwar replied. He had to repeat the
word many time till I got it. “Hey, sword” I was jumping holding the sword in
my hands. I ran to my teacher and told him that this is a “sword”.
“You see Samah. This is a magical question. Now you have a
new word ask the same question refereeing to something else you will get a new
answer.”
I went to Anwar again and this time I referred to my hand, I
said “Anwar what is this? , he answered “hand”, then I referred to my figures,
foot, eyes, nose …everything that my eyes could see and my hand could
touch. I still remember Anwar’s smile
which was shining like his blond hair in that sunny day.
“Sword, sword, sword happily running to mom’s car”
Mom, asked me about the word and of course I was excited
enough to tell the whole story. Then I started asking “what is this?” to mom
too.
This magical question opened the door of knowledge to me.
Every day I learned a new word. I learned the face, the body and some few
objects of everyday use like a spoon and a plate. I felt I was privileged to
know all these stuffs. I went to school showing off in front of my classmates.
I stared acting like a high class girls, who knew what others did not. At that
time I was in the elementary school and still English was prohibited in schools
in my country by that time. English made me special, smart and unique. My lovely
classmates surrounded me in a circle shape and were listening to those few
words, which I am sure I was pronouncing them wrongly. One day, one of my
classmates brought me English book and asked me to read for her what was in
that book. I looked at the book and my eye opened very wide, I said “what is
this?” my classmate said this English story, her father’s friend brought to her
as a gift and she could not read it. I was embarrassed and did not know how to
explain that I learned English by listening and speaking not by reading. I was shocked to know that it is not enough
to speak the language, one had to read it. I went home sadly after losing the
flashes upon my eyes. I came to mom again and asked her to teach me English
letters.
Mom was surprised of my request and wished if there was an
English school so I could enroll and study English there. She could feel the
passion I had to English.
“Calm down, Samah. I will teach you. But do not rush
yourself and read English only in your spare time” mom kindly talked to me.
“OK, mama. Let’s start” Samah.
“not now. I am cooking lunch now.” Mama.
“No, mama. Please I want to read English” Samah.
Mama loudly said “leave alone now”.
Mama is a very organized person. And she does not like doing
many things at the same time. Sometimes
I tell her “mama, can I have an appointment with you to talk?” she is always
busy. I have never seen her sitting doing nothing.
I left mama and went to her desk and found her French books.
I took one of them which was a story about a butcher’s shop, where students can
learn about the various kinds of meet. I looked at the book; the letters were
similar to those that my friend showed me in school. I took my notebook and
started imitating the letters without knowing what they meant and how they were
pronounced. Mama caught me playing with her stuff. She looked at my hand
writing and saw how bad it was, then she felt so sorry that she should have
helped me instead of leaving working alone.
“This is not English Samah. This is French”
“No, mama. I know it is English. My friend showed to me the
same transcript”
Mama could not explain the difference between the two
languages because whatever she said, I did not understand. How come two
languages with the same alphabet system and were not the same. For a moment, I
thought that my mom was running from teaching me English. However, mama brought
an English note book and wrote three capital “As” in the top of the notebook.
I filled that page quickly and came to mom again for more
“As”. I was very happy to learn this letter. Then I asked her to teach how to
write my name, and she did. Then I asked her to teach me how to write apple,
bag, pen and so many. I got very bored from writing “As” and fill the note
book. I wanted to write real words so the surrounded objects would have meaning
to me. Mama insisted to do both, writing
letters and words. She said that I need to practice writing these letters very
well in order to write them easily when I write a full word. Day after day and
my vocabulary had increased. I was trying to read whatever I see in English
letters, even if those letters are German or Italian, I would still read them
in English. Every day I asked mom for more words and sentences, my appetite to
learn had never satisfied. In a very short time, I learned how to write all my family
name and my friends’ name too. I had another showing off practice, now I speak,
read and write. My friends used to bring their note books and asked to write
their names on the first page and they were very happy of this practice which
made me very popular among classmates.
My happy day of showing off never last long, one day a group
of nurses visited our school for injection instruction. When they got into the
class, they gave us a form to fill. The form was written in English. (Name ……,
DOB……..etc.). The nurses knew that most students if not all did not know
English, so they translated these word to Arabic. I was sitting smiling because
I knew these words and now I even knew how they were written.
“Please nurse, do I need to write my name next to word
(naamee) ( this is how pronounced it)”
I said.
The nurse replied “ what naamee /name:/? Do you mean “name”?
Referring to the word “name”.
I said “yes, but there is an (e) at the end and mom told me
that this letter is pronounced /i:/” the nurse joyfully replied “ I do not know
what your mom told you, but this word is “name” not “ naamee”.
Sadly I sat on my chair, thinking “now what? Every time I
learn something, something else comes up.”
