sweet pea is starting to learn
how to read in kindy. it astounds
and baffles me at the same time.
mommy, i can spell the — t h e.
mommy, i can spell is — i s.
we’re sounding out letters and she’s
doing very well.
at the same time, gosh…how does
one ever learn to read? i’m really
rather impatient by nature and the
step by step process seems dreadfully,
dauntingly slow.
i’m trying to remember how i learned,
and there are only snippets of images
and half-memories. my writing critique
friends always make fun of me when i
say i am esl (english as a second language),
but it’s something that’s deeply ingrained
in me. when you take a six year old child
to a new country where she doesn’t
understand one word that is uttered
other than “goodnight” (which i always
thought was chinese! cause my mom would
say it to me so it must have been…), it
makes an impression.
i was plopped into first grade some
time in march of 1980. not knowing
anything except that my name was cindy.
i remember mrs. bristol (she had a halo
of fluffy white hair and was round and kind)
writing my name on the chalkboard. i
didn’t even know the alphabet, much less
how to spell my own name.
i sat next to chad g, a blond haired,
blue eyed boy whom everyone had a
crush on, including me. curious memory.
we got tracked into different classes
through elementary. and one day in
seventh grade, while walking outside
during a class break, he came up next
to me and said, i bet you don’t even
remember who i am. but of course i
did–he was my first american crush.
he moved later that year. i still google
him to this day to no avail.
once a crush, always googled.
i remember writing “yellow” on the
steamed bathroom mirror with my
mom after a bath. spelling out
“slide” and “swing” in our living room,
as i watched the other neighborhood
kids outside ride on their bikes and play.
i remember “friend” was a challenge
in mrs. bristol’s class. she put it on
our spelling test repeatedly, because
it was so difficult to get right. i remember
that i got it right and chad had not.
i can’t tell you when the language
opened up to me. at what point in
time my understanding of english
surpassed my mother’s, who was always
the patient teacher before. i never
read picture books as a child. i was too
busy memorizing words, learning
how to speak, how to fit in. i never
heard nursery rhymes–as my mom
did not know them to recite to me.
but in the next moment, i was reading.
as many books as i could, and loving the
worlds that opened up to me in words.
it is very strange and awe-inspiring for me,
to go through the process again with
my daughter. to watch and help as she
unlocks the magic.
*i was supposed to have yummy food
fotos today, but my camera ran out
of batteries. so you get a shot from the
sorry i’m disheveled and have worn the
same shirt three days in a row stay at
home novelist cam instead. =)
21 Comments
Ha, I was going to say that I like your shirt AND your glasses!
This was such an interesting post, Cindy. Isn’t language acquisition bizarre and impossible seeming? It’s amazing to me that it happens. It was also so interesting to see how much language–written and verbal and foreign–affected you.
My daughter is learning her letters and the sounds they make, and now I’m wondering–how on earth do I begin to teach her how to read? I wish we spoke Spanish, beautiful, phonetic Spanish, not this confusing mess called English.
kiersten, exactly. i was going to go on a tangent about how english makes no sense. how can “tear” be “tare” and “teer” at the same time? whenever my mom asks me for help with grammar and such, i can never explain it to her!
Ah, crazy English. I swear it makes sense once you’ve bean through a “History of the English Language” course. But I won’t bore you with that.
Great little story. I remember learning my letters in kindy. We were on N and my teacher asked for words that start with N. I said “knife” and was mortified to discover it started with a K. (But know I know why, heh.)
Oooh, I so heart this post! I’m fascinated with language acquisition and development. And I’m fascinated with ESL learning, both among children and adults.
I do believe you’ve inspired me to write a “How I learned to read/My Literacy Autobiography.” Don’t worry…I don’t think anyone will hold it against you. :)
you’re so cute. it’s almost unbearable. chad g missed out.
It is magic, isn’t it, watching their little minds figure it out. One day they’re struggling to spell “is” and months later they’re mumbling to themselves from picture books. I don’t think there’s anything like that afterwards in life, where you feel learning it opens up a whole new world to you. It’s why I had to teach first grade, so I could spend all my time in that place.
I agree with moonrat. Poor Chad G.
Unlike most regions, for some reason the school I went to didn’t teach us how to read until 1st grade. I’m always jealous when I hear of kids today learning their letters in pre-K, and how to read in K.
I learned when I was 6, but for the life of me I can’t remember the process. In my mind, it seems like I went from not knowing one day to instantly reading the next! :)
Your story is so cool! I didn’t learn a second and third language until I was in my teens. It’s amazing what little minds can process.
LOL How funny!
I’m thinking bout language too today…Spanish will feature heavily in my second book and I am sitting trying to think about how I learned German…and, when I was still struggling so, I heard a little 3 year old speak it and was just flummoxed.
“He knew German and I didn’t!”
It is a hard language…and I was dejected.
Great post! And you look lovely!
You are gorgeous, my love!
Eldest has made a huge reading breakthrough – BIG, HUGE, novels that she carries around and takes to bed at night.
Thing One and Thing Two are just learning the rules. And yes! What astonishingly difficult rules they are. The first vowel says its own name when there’s another e at the end. Huh? When two vowels go a walking, the first one does the talking. Huh?
It seems like pure magic to me when they string words together into sentences. I am baffled as to how the mind makes sense of it (and THAT is why I am a fantasy writer and NOT a linguist-neurologist-person).
natlie, i’m glad it’s all clear to you know. what about gnome and the slient “g” there? ha! i don’t think i can refer that book to my mom, tho.
precie, yay! so glad you enjoyed the post! can’t wait to read yours. =D
moonie, that is quite a compliment from the cutest rat i know. haha! and i’m gonna google chad g after this. he has a unique name and never pulls up. =(
jacqui, you are amazing for teaching first graders! it must be so fun, tho.
david, they started to teach reading in kindy that extensively recently with the push for less play learning. =( so the curriculum that was for first graders before is now pushed on to kindy kiddies.
jkb, wow, that you speak german. (as you would, being there!) are you fluent?
elise, truer words have never been said with your last sentence! haha!
Well, since you asked, “gnome” came to English through French, which plucked it from Latin. “Gn” got all messed up in English, but it was used as a way to write a nasal sound Spanish speakers will recognize as “ñ”. That sound wasn’t present when the French came in to England, so native speakers naturally morphed the word so they could say it.
So…yeah, I’m a nerd. And now I proved it, heh.
i bow down to you, natalie! i remember i looked up the history of “un” versus “in” which has morphed for certain words throughout history.
You know I really really admire you for this! My first language was Japanese (my parents were studying in tokyo) but I came here at the age of 2 so I learned English as a toddler and to me, English is my first language because quite frankly, I don’t even remember any Japanese. But learning other languages has always been extremely hard for me. Learning Korean was torturous and I speak it so poorly Koreans laugh when they hear me. Forget about reading and writing it! Absolutely impossible!
You look too, too cute in your cam shot, Cindy! And we have the same glasses!!!
I *heart* this post – and it’s funny, but at university (University College London) my subject was Linguistics (as in Phonetics, Phonology, Logic).
And I was laughably hopeless at it — I wanted to read Eng. Lit, but there were no more places by the time I applied (late) — in my naivete, I thought I could just switch courses. But oh, no…
I managed to hang on in there for almost 2 years, and then quit to take up a full-time editorial position at The Times (of London)…and never looked back :)
ello, i think it’s admirable that you speak the language! i’m having a hard time teaching the bubs mandarin–mine is elementary at best, too.
juliette, what an adventure. haha! and how did you manage to get a job at the times ?!? WOW! the english couldn’t kick me out of the country fast enough. haha! once my student work visa ran out.
This was neat to read. I’m amazed to watch my 1st grader take off in reading this year. But your experience with language give you unique perspective!
Christy
Cute post. I can relate as a Watcher.
My husband grew up in Denmark.
One day I was singing – if that’s what you want to call it – to our son, “Rock-a-Bye Baby in the Tree Top, when the wind blows the cradle will rock, when the bough breaks the cradle will fall, down will come baby, cradle and all.”
My husband looked at me like I was a monster, “What are you saying to my son?!!!” He couldn’t believe that was a well-known nursery rhyme. “Sick!” He said.
I thought about it…we changed the words.
christy, thank you! isn’t it exciting?
kim, your hubby is from denmark? what a great story. i love it!
i remember having issues with words that were more than 2 syllables. i had to break them down into 2 words: vege – table or deter-mine. i hated reading aloud in class. i tried to find humor in it by clowning around when the teacher would call on me. oh, memories!
awww, is that how you became the jokester, mrs. CM? =) we’ll coax the writer out of you yet!!
I remember learning to read and write being incredibly difficult. So frustrating. Then it suddenly, magically, fell into place.