Many Forms of English

Growing up with Spanish being my first language, speaking English seemed a little hard at first. My parents spoke both Spanish and English to me. While my grandmother who took care of me only spoke Spanish to me. I feel that as I grew up, my English developed a little better and was able to speak it well. I have noticed that I speak a variation of English forms. For instance with my parents I speak a different way then I do with my friends and also at school. the different Englishes I use have made me who I am today.

My Parents were the first ones to speak English to me as well as other family members of mine. With them I speak Spanglish or in other words Spanish and English at the same time. I also speak to them an English that I can't describe because it is more of the way that I speak with my friends. For example with my mom I talk like this, "Hey mom como estas?" and with my dad its more like "What up yo." since my parents are young I feel that i speak to them as i do with my friends.

When I am with my friends though I feel I use cursing, while with my parents I don't. I am able just to express myself my friends because I know they get me. When I am mad that's when I use cursing and my friends know something is wrong with me. Because these are the people I trust with my problems that is why I talk to them the way I do. For example with my friends I say things like, "Hey what you been up to", or "For real." I feel that is the way i really get through to them.

I remember one day when I was so upset because my parents did something that just made me feel really bad. I called one of my friends named Shanti and I said to her, " Hey what you doing cause I freakin need your help" and then she said, "What happened?" I told her, "My freakin parents are killing me because they just wont freakin stop fighting." She said to me, "it's alright don't worry just ignore them cause my parents do the same thing sometimes." I felt that when she told me this that I was going to be okay because she understood my situation. These are the kind of things that help me and the English I use lets me communicate with my friends.

When I ma at school I feel that I need to impress my professors because like people say, "First Impressions Count." So I try so hard not to use words that I normally would with my parents or my friends. I always try to use proper words and not slang words. I sometimes even feel that if I don't use proper words, people around me are also going to make fun of me. I am always making sure that I don't sound dumb when speaking in front of my class or just when I respond to a question. Fro example I speak like this, "Well I believe that this is not true because." I find that speaking like this wont let me embarrass myself.

The Englishes I speak have helped me in life in all ways. I feel that by allowing myself to do this I can communicate with all the people in my life. English is very important for me and I feel that having learned this language has helped me a lot. I am glad that I use different English forms.

Being Afraid

In reading, the story of “No Escape” from The Mee Street Chronicles, which was written by Frankie Lennon the narrator, finds herself in a situation. The narrator is frightened and does not really know what to do. I feel that what I thought of the little girl was that she was scared and had a very good imagination. The two characters traits that she demonstrates are confused and determination. I feel that we all have times like this one in, which we feel that we need to get out and look for help or just deal with it. Sometimes we just feel that we have to do things to get over our fears and that helps a lot.

In the story I felt that the little girl was just making a story up which really was interesting. As I kept reading, I noticed how the little girl was scared and had no way out of her situation. She really did not know what to do or who to look for since she could not find anyone she was looking for. I think that it really caught my attention because she was very descriptive and I could really see all of this happening to her. I also thought that the little girl was just not really opening her eyes to see that none of that was happening. I think that the narrator really gave enough information for me to want to be there with her and help her to escape that situation.

I thought that two character traits that the narrator had were that she was confused and determined as well. I felt that she was confused because she did not know what to do and where to go to look for help. She also had no clue why all of this was happening to her and what she could do to make it stop. Another thing that makes me feel this is because she really does not know whom is the person talking to her. I felt that she was determined because even though she was frightened she still found ways to a way out of her situation. She was willing to risk her life and not worry about what was going to happen next. The only thing narrator wanted to do was find her parents and she did all kinds of things for that. I find that she was really showing her determination in doing that.

I feel that there was times were I too felt that I was afraid and did not have the strength at the time to face it. I feel that with the story my situation rather relates because I was also afraid. One of the many situations that I could not face was moving from a public school to a catholic school. I felt this way because I really was not like all these kids at my new school. I was different and going from a school were I had known these people from like kindergarten to having to make new friends because I was going to a different school now.

I was about twelve years old when I had finished sixth grade and was going to move into junior high. My parents decided that I needed to get away from my old friends and move to a new school. I was mad because I had friends who where with me since kindergarten and now we were going to have to say good-bye forever. I was going to go to a place that I had never seen before and it was not familiar to me at all.

As I walked into the school, I felt like everybody was looking at me. It was the first day of school and I did not recognize any faces at all. I felt that I could was look around to see of anybody would even come up to me to say a word. I walked up to the school principal and she talked to me for a while until finally some girls came over. They introduced themselves and I made new friends.

I think that we all have bad situations in our life that we have to face. It is a shame that we cannot always get over our fears, as we would want. In the story, I learned that we sometimes have to go for things and face than just walk away. We should all think this way and I am glad that I read this because I have been able to learn from it.