On the first day of school, I didn’t know how to speak english. This was kindergarten. It was hard for me to understand anything that was going on. This language barrier made learning slightly more difficult but given I entered school at such a young age, the transition was more smooth than someone who is learning English for the first time at 12. Nonetheless, I needed ELA classes. It help me understand the culture that my family is based upon. I learn more about food and the different aspects of it all, especially the music. There are words in the Tagalog language that don’t have direct translations in english but I can still understand the meaning of it. I can also connect more to my family in the Philippines who were raised in the culture as compared to an Asian-American.
