Melina Carachure

Professor Adler
English 100 #72051
5 October 2015
For a period of 3 years I was expanding my knowledge by attempting to learn a new language.
The reason for that was because I come from a family of Hispanic background. my grandparents
from my mother and father are Latino and speak Spanish. My parents were born in Mexico and
came to the United States at a very young age and graduated High School here. My mother was
the only one who continued with her studies. She attended California State University, Los
Angeles and graduated with a Bachelors in Nursing. So because my parents had an English
education, they speak English fluently and when they had children they raised us speaking and
understanding only English.
I remember when I was younger in the first grade, I was not capable of having a full
conversation with any of my grandparents. Even though English is my first language, Spanish
was and still continuous to be spoken throughout my family. It was very difficult to try and
communicate with my grandparents because I did not understand nor did I speak Spanish and
they having the complete opposite problem of not understanding and speaking English. My
grandmother insisted that my mother teach me to speak Spanish. The following year, going into
the third grade, my mother signed me up to take Spanish classes. At the very beginning I was not
so thrilled to be having to take another class and have more homework to do than I originally
have from school. I liked going to school, and I liked learning and developing new ways to do
my work inside and outside of school. Whenever we had a teacher-parent conference, I was
always so eager to go to those meetings. Maybe it was because I loved to hear all the great and

wonderful things my teachers had to say about me. School was a place where I felt independent.
I was one of the few student who would finish their work early and be asked to work on another
activity or help other students who needed assistance. I did not so much like helping other
students. Not because I was selfish or anything, but because I felt that they were able to it all by
themselves. I thought to myself, if I can do my work all by myself and finish with time to spare,
those student could finish their work all by themselves with the entire period of time we were
given. I guess because I had a growth mind-set I thought everybody else had a growth mind-set
too.
Everything started to change in my educational life. The way I felt about school and how I was
taught. I started to see the difference of how my spanish teacher taught me and the way my
school teacher taught me. In my spanish class there was always some type of recompense and
applause for our hard work. And on the contrary, in my school class, our hard work did not earn
us much but a dumb golden star that could not even be redeemed for a new pencil or eraser. I
started to slack off in school and began to be more entertained by doing my spanish activities and
homework in which involved me practicing the language with other people in some type of
physical way, rather than being still, sitting down, doing my boring school homework. I can
relate my experience with Marjorie Agosin whom is now a spanish professor. She too had a
indistinguishable life story just like mine. She is originally from Chile and her initial language is
spanish. She strived to learn a new language and acquired it. But she prefers to speak her native
language. And the reason for that being is because when she arrived to the United States she
spoke english with an accent and was made fun of. She decided that the only way she could
recover from those insults is by continuing to read, write, and speak spanish. The same way I

continued to give more effort in my spanish classes in where i was compensated and not put
down for my failures.
As time started to pass by and I continued into the fourth and fifth grade and also with my
spanish classes, my growth mind-set started to change. I found my spanish classes becoming
easier and easier and I appeared to be passing the given tests without reviewing or giving much
effort. It was a piece a cake! I thought the same about school. I did not pay much attention in
class and was not understanding the material thoroughly. I would not give any type of effort to
try and at least understand the lesson or what the teacher was babbling about. Right then and
there is when my growth mind-set transformed into a fixed mind-set. I was struggling a lot in
school. I was so use to getting everything correct in my spanish classes without trying or paying
full attention, I thought I could do the same in school. From then on I despised doing school
homework or classwork because I actually needed to give some sort of effort. I loved doing my
spanish homework because it was easier and I did not have to give effort. Because of my lack of
effort, I was really close to repeating the fifth grade. I would not do good on the quizzes or test. I
would not participate in class activities because even if I did participate in those certain
activities, I would not get any type of reward or compliment on how my work was done or
thanked for even participating in the first place. The complete opposite of how my spanish
classes functioned. My teachers started to take notice in my behavior and how I was not the same
kid who would excel in class activities and was always so enthusiastic to learn new strategies.
Those teacher-parent conferences did not excite me anymore. The teachers would talk about my
unorthodox behavior and my test scores, which were not so good. I refused to try because I felt
that I was being treated as an illiterate who needed extra help. But that was not the problem! The
one and only problem was my fixed mind-set. I was not being rewarded enough for me to try.

My mom thought I was just going through a phase every kid goes through. She did not pay much
attention so my fits.
It was a Wednesday morning, vocabulary quiz day. I was sitting there unable to define one
word. Biting on my pencil nervously because the clock was ticking and I was the only one left
with my quiz. Going from being the first students to finish early to one of the very last ones not
even halfway done with the quiz, hit me like slap to the face. Not only did my teachers notice
that transaction but also my classmates. I was embarrassed! It was good timing actually, after I
realized that I needed to shape up, my mom took action as well. She got tough and was
consistent on my work and would make me read every night for 30 minutes. I was starting to
develop that passion I had towards school again. I began to interact in class and was participating
in class activities with or without being rewarded. I also continued with my spanish classes and I
successfully achieved to learn a different language. To this day I am able to read, write, and
speak spanish quite fluently. I regained that passion I had about books. I would read and read as
many books as I possibly could throughout the week. When I would read and still until this day
when I read I find some sort of escape like I go into another world of fiction where there is
nothing to else worry about but to read and read. Just like a handful of students in the book "The
Freedom Writer's Diary" they also found their own world in writing. I believe it takes hard work
and dedication to develop a strong passion for reading and writing. A passion like that does not
develop overnight like stated in Bell Hooks article Critical Thinking "Students do not become
critical thinkers overnight." You have to like that subject in order to obtain your goal.
Overall, I talked about how my educational experiences have impacted me in a variety of
negative and positive ways throughout my life. In detail I described how I experienced those
events. Although I am fluent in speaking spanish and can read and write spanish quite perfect, in

a certain degree I much rather prefer to speak, read and write in english. Achieving my goal to
learn a new language was such a great way to enlarge my capacity of comprehension.