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Literacy Narrative

Mani Wongpaiboon

At a very young age, I invariably had a preference for math and science. Rather than completing
crossword puzzles and word searches, I spent endless hours playing Soduku. Reading and writing was not
always my forte and at a young age I was never fully passionate about or interested in words or writing,
specifically of the English language that I considered to be foreign and unknown. A basis for that mindset
was due in fact to the part that I barely spoke English. Being of Thai-Chinese ethnicity, my first words
were Mae or in other words, Mommy in Thai. I learned numbers and how to add and subtract by the
age of three, but was not able to learn or spell out the English alphabet at that same age. Along with this
fascination for numbers, my first memory of reading and writing was based off of the book Click, Clack,
Splish, Splash, and as expected, was a book about kindergarten math. Although a book in reference to
mathematics, it was the writing itself that I distinguished from the numbers. I remember becoming fond of
the words and perhaps at this moment is where I truly grew for the love and ardor for reading and the way
it stood out to me on the pages, and how they made me think and challenge myself as I tried to recognize
and understand them. Soon enough I was enrolled in preschool where my growing vocabulary of English
words ultimately progressed into sentences and phrases. At this time in age, I enjoyed composing poetry
and stories that gave me a medium to channel my love for writing. Whether it was rudimentary dialogues
and words that I spoke, my preschool and kindergarten teachers were fond of my writing and even
regarding me as a sponge for absorbing every word they threw at me and for writing at a middle school
level in elementary school.
Although my parents were both not completely fluent in English, they were still knowledgeable
of the grammar present in these phrases and assisted in my correction of them. They took every initiative
to improve my speech and writing, to formulate me to become a better writer and speaker than they were
at my age and to make me connoisseurs of language in both Thai and English. There were independent
classes within my Charter school that assisted in the enrichment of vocabulary and grammar, the two
components of writing that the school system presumed to be most impactful during writing. Following
the enrollment of these classes all throughout elementary and middle school, the entirety of the English
language was augmented were due in part to these classes. Conceivably, my earliest faults in writing was
not grammar, style, or prose, but spelling. I often overlapped the two languages, spelling some words in
English the way I would in Thai. My teachers and mentors at the time were fond of this dedication I had
for being bilingual but did not consider this an excuse for my poor spelling. After hours of studies and
lessons from my teachers was when I mastered the art of spelling and proofreading.
Memories of my first literacy experiences are notable but sparse, yet its mark still echoes in my
present day writing. My endearment for writing continued to grow throughout high school even if classes
did not allow me to. With few writing assignments and papers and sparse free time on my hands, I
channeled writing into my college assessment tests and applications. I learned to balance between
expounding my thoughts and creating frugal writing, facets of organization in writing that I was never
able to master. Through this medium I learned to not only compose my writing in a pristine way, but I
uncovered some components of myself that I was not aware prior. I studied and developed skills and
creativity based off of my curiosity to the different types of writing that I have yet to explore. Writing was
essential to my academic career, as well as my potential career. The extensive hours and challenges of
language and writing honed my skills and with it, I was accepted into my dream university and was
recognized as a scholarship recipient within the college.
The moments leading from picking up my first book until writing this literacy narrative were all
due in part to the holistic nature of the connections between my world and literature. Components of
literature can be found within my experiences such as characters, constructive settings, continuous plots,
and resolutions. This interpersonal connection to my own experiences and a piece of art that I have
continuously strained to overcome make my academic career and future conducive to growth and success.
Writing has invariably been significant in the role that it has played throughout my experiences growing
up. With it, I learned the significance of cultural literacy and was able to integrate it with both my culture
and my identity.

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