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Vince Donovan
Professor Vaughn
Intermediate Composition Honors
September 12, 2015
Taking Advantage of Your Literacy
According to the book of Genesis in the Old Testament in the Bible, and the book
of Genesis in the Tanakh, the ancient peoples after the Great Flood spoke only one
language, and congregated together and decided to build a tower, the Tower of Bable, to
make a name for themselves. Seeing this, God descended from the heavens and confused
their language, and scattered all of them across the entire world, so they would not be an
invincible and unified force (Genesis: 11). All religion and mythology was and is used to
explain the unnatural phenomenon that pervades the natural world. This legend is
specifically used to explain why human beings dont speak the same language and why
we dont all live in the same region. However, in todays age, the human race is on a
global stage unlike any Father Time himself has witnessed- with a few taps of the finger
on a cell phone you can connect with people in any country instantaneously. Despite the
rapid dying of some languages (Lewis, Paul, Simons Fennig) and this new global era,
native tongues still vary and cultures are still geographically isolated. It is for this very
reason I have thrown myself into the study of languages other than the American English
I was raised on. My own personal journey to expand my literacies, and my never-ending
attempt to salvage the dismembered and scattered remnants of the Tower of Bable, so as
to not be passed over by the opportunities the world has to offer me.

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My legs were stiff and my eyes bloodshot. I was nearing a sprint as I shoved my
luggage into a taxi, and I rushed a giant breath of air into my exasperated lungs that
wouldve normally have choked me with its urban smog if it werent for the intense
excitement that infiltrated my body and distracted me. As I was finally able to stretch my
legs for the first time since my flight landed, I rolled down the dark tinted window and
threw my head outside so I wouldnt miss anything that we drove by. I was finally in
Paris. The City of Lights that bewitched all that had been there was finally mine for the
taking. After three years of studying French I thought, no I knew, I was ready for it all. I
was prepared and I was brilliant. I expected beautiful cityscapes to pass me by, but as
soon as I thrust my head out the taxi window, I was met by a highway wall covered in
graffiti. Not what I expected, but not a disappointment. I was so poised and hungry for
what this foreign land had for me I couldve parachuted off the plane and landed in a
dumpster in a dingy alleyway and I would have been thrilled. As the taxi neared closer to
our hotel, the driver swiveled his head towards the passengers, my parents, a classmate of
mine, another chaperone, and myself and asked us in a low and fast manner where our
hotel was. In French. For a split second I had no idea what the fellow said to me. Did he
speak French? Oh my god what did he say how could I not have understood him why
wasnt I paying closer attention? were just a couple of the thought searing through my
mind. I gathered myself and politely told him the address and he thanked me. I tried my
best to contort my face so I wasnt beaming with pride at having handled myself outside
of English, outside of America for that matter, with seemingly aplomb. As my trip to
France toiled on, my abilities and mindset were expanded and contracted in ways I did
not expect them to. My tongue flicked out of my mouth as I spoke with more speed,

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clarity, and confidence. There was one kiosk girl who refused to speak in French with me,
because of my apparent American accent, but that wasnt a deterrent. After that trip I
returned to my high school French class with a new fire in my belly and tore it up. I tried
my hand at reading novels in French and never missed an opportunity to wring the
language out.
As I transitioned from high school to college I was told I had to take Spanish to be
a successful social worker once I had my degree. As a social worker, I will work with an
extremely diverse array of clientele, and a language barrier should not keep me from
helping those who need it the most. I had fancied the idea of testing out of the foreign
language requirement with my French but decided in the end to staple a third language
under my belt. The college-level class environment wouldve thrown me for a huge loop
if it had not been for my proficient French skills. Despite the fact that four years of
language study were crammed into one, I breezed through both semesters, rarely having
to truly apply myself, except for pronunciation. It was
constantly fascinating drawing the comparisons between French and Spanish and
working my mouth and tone around a new language. Unlike French, where I had some
innate understanding of the pronunciation of the language, I had to sit myself down the
first couple of nights studying Spanish and really hammer out this new array of sounds. I
didnt want to do a dishonor to all of the people who speak Spanish and who are proud of
it by butchering the language. It took a solid hour of sheer willpower and determination
to roll my Rs for the first time in my life. Also for the first time in my life, Ive been
making a more concerted effort to think in French and Spanish. Every now and again
when Im having a glancing thought, Ill think to myself, Why not try that again in

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Spanish? and so I do. I keep a mental record of the grammar mistakes I make and try to
rectify them. I feel it will help me in the long run, in thinking that, Dont native speakers
of a language typically think in that language? Thinking in Spanish or French is
seemingly unnecessary, but it helps prepare me for when Im back in an environment
where Im fully immersed outside of my comfort zone and have to rely on my skills.
As Ive delved into this specific literacy, Ive had to grow in how I view myself
and my motives for learning these skills. At first, learning languages was, in a sense,
almost a parlor trick. Something I would be able to do and take in some admiring and
even jealous glances, being a human, Im a creature of and for attention. However, now
Ive come to understand that languages are more than ability, theyre a symbol of cultures
and histories Ive had limited exposure to. As Ive matured, Im no longer speaking
Spanish or French for the sake of the action, but to pry my eyes open for a glance into a
world completely unlike my own. This respect Ive had to craft has bled into other
aspects of my life. The argument can be made that everything is a language, and the
terms language and literacy can very literally be interchangeable. A perfect example of
this happened earlier this week. In my biology lecture, there was a question asking which
of the following elemental compounds was not a sugar. I know next to nothing about
biology, but after studying two romance languages on top of my native English, I have a
sixth sense for word structure and Latin roots on a subconscious level. I was sitting in my
lecture, surrounded by my group members who were at the time fretting over which
options on the multiple choice question was the correct one. Every class we had these
questionnaires that we are graded on. We answer them by selecting our answers on these
miniscule remote controls that we aim at the projector screen and push the button that

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corresponds with the answer we hold to be correct. As the question was presented to us,
my brains instinct was to shut down. Complex words I had never heard of before sprang
to my eyes, words that reeked of science and an inevitable incorrectness that was sure to
be coming my way very soon. I wanted to just give up. I was mentally and physically
exhausted that day and I had another class right after the lecture and I was preoccupied
with that more so. I just wanted to bite the bullet and wait for my professors dismissal. I
was done. Eventually my determination kicked in and I buckled down. My tired eyes did
their best to glaze over my inconspicuous options. My brain felt like it had been
microwaved as it tried to feebly mull over the abysmal query at hand. Suddenly, a flash of
electricity seared from my retinas to the center of my skull, telling me I knew a way to
find the light from the end of this tunnel. Three of the options ended in -ose, using the
skills I developed, I deducted that the option that didnt end in -ose mustve not have
been a sugar. Despite having a severely limited understanding of the natural sciences, I
was able to use other talents to help me in a seemingly unrelated field outside of my
comfort zone. Despite the fact that this example seems relatively unimportant, after all, it
was just one simple multiple choice question, it helped solidify that the huge amount of
effort and dedication I pour into language study is paying off in other areas of my life.
This mountain of work has been worth my time, hard work, and elevates my literacy
from a parlor trick to an extremely necessary tool. My literacy has become an intrinsic
element of my life. Not only has this literacy helped me; its deepened the sense of
respect I have for other literacies. As I said, I know little to nothing about biology. Most
of my life, when presented with a challenge that didnt have immediate rewards in stock
for me, like science or math, I would just give up and blame it on my lack of aptitude and

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not myself for not trying, but now I have a respect for ventures outside of my interests,
and that is the gift this literacy has given me. Im not a budding scientist or athlete,
busting out of my seams with passion when I think of those subjects, but I can put myself
in a place of empathy because of my own passions. Before, I couldnt bring myself to
care any less about some peoples passions, but in turn Ive had to realize I cant expect
others to care as deeply about all of the facets of my individuality as much as I do. That
would be highly unrealistic, so as to better myself, I now go more out of my way to be
appreciative of talents outside of my own literacies. Languages are a form of literacy, and
literacy has many forms, one of them being language, and others being things I dont
particularly have an interest in, but given their similar relationship to literacy as language,
they can be viewed as one in the same, and thus deserve my respect.
The various literacies people obtain and flourish in help them craft their lives into
whatever they want them to be. For example, my literacy and knack for languages was
born out of my love for travel and my desire to partake in the world outside of my own.
Malcolm X stated this clearly in reference to his newfound joy in reading, Anyone who
has read a great deal can imagine the new world that opened, the exception being that
my newfound world is not collections of ink-sprawled pages, but the world itself. Thanks
to my literacy, I am on my way to being able to fly to a litany of locales and live
comfortably. I can become fully immersed in more aspects of the world than most can
say. Because of my drive to acquire the skills necessary to do that, I am now prepared to
enjoy a life full of adventure, learning, and a never-ending pilgrimage of expanding my
world-view. Literacies are a tangible projection of where you want to take your life. The
degree to which you want to live your life the most effectively is entirely in your hands.

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Surrender yourself to your passions and let them take you where they want to. Improve
upon and drive yourself to new constellations of personal growth so as to be more
capable for the various roads ahead of you.

Works Cited

"BibleGateway." Genesis 11. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Sept. 2015.

<https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%2B11>.

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Lewis, M. Paul, Gary F. Simons, and Charles D. Fennig (eds.). 2015. Ethnologue: Languages
of the World, Eighteenth edition. Dallas, Texas: SIL International.