Dao1

Giang Dao Professor Jan Rieman ENGL 1101-010 February 11, 2013 When I worked on this assignment, I felt like back to the past. It was very interesting for me to find out what I had done to get this place. Literacy memoir Nowadays, the ability to read and write (literacy) becomes more and more important for everyones life. Individuals who are able to read and write are generally more accepted and successful in the professional world than those who are not able to do so. Therefore, now almost all people in the world have the ability to read and write. Relating to that, they might have literacy memoir. I also have literacy memoirs. My family, my teachers, and my friends affect me a lot in literacy. One year before I got first grade, my mother taught me how to speak each letter in Vietnamese, and she also taught me how to write them. Moreover, my parents bought me many books which use for painting and it has name of things and animals on the papers. I was so excited with them. When I daubed on the pictures, my mother taught me what things and animals I was daubing on. I did think that was the first time I had literacy, and I was wrong. Went to the first grade, teachers taught me almost same with what my mother taught me. However, they taught me how to speak some easy words but important like mom, dad, etc. It is some differences way to speak a word between Vietnamese and English. In English, when I see a

Dao2

word which is hard, and I have not heard before, I may speak them wrong, or even English native speakers could be wrong when they speak a hard word and they do not know or heard that before. However, in Vietnamese, when I see a word, I can read it correctly even I have not heard or know that before because we study how to spell each part of a word, and Vietnamese only has one vowel in each word. Moreover, they taught me how to hold a pen and how to write each letter. Second grade marked an important point in my life. I started studying Math. Even it was about numbers with plus and subtract calculations, but it is the basic people need to know to develop their Math skill. I usually used those symbols to take notes in secondary school and high school. For example, = usually means equal, or + means and, etc. I used those symbols to take notes in many subjects which require write a lot. It helped me take notes faster. At the same time, I moved to live with my grandmother who born my mother. She told me many stories with her books. The story I most remember is which is

Little Red Riding Hood in English because it is famous and interesting at that age. Therefore, when I look at some words which I had not studied yet, she taught me how to pronounce and read them. At fifth grade, I started studying English. It was not grammar or structure. It was some formal words that people usually say in English like: Hello, Goodbye, etc. At that time, I started playing game. The first game that I played was Mario with English version. I studied some words after I played it

Dao3

many times. For example, I learned the words: Start, Options, and Quit.

When I turned to sixth grade, I started studying Principle of Math. It was like some basic rules in Algebra. I also learned how to calculate Perimeter, Area, and Volume. Therefore, I studied some English words because P, A, V are used to stand for Perimeter, Area, and Volume in English. At sixth grade to ninth grade, I also had to read a lot of pieces of many stories in Literature. Most of them were fairy tales. From those stories, I studied a lot of different words which I had not seen before. More important, I learned those words meanings and how to use them. Up to seventh grade, I had to study materialism and idealism in Citizen Education. It made me two new ideas about life. After that, I studied Marxism. It was really crazy for me when I studied those stuffs because those ideologies are not very clear. I also had to study Physics. They affected me about some English words. The first time I saw V and T in Physics, I thought V stands for Vn tc means Velocity in English, and T stands for Thi gian means Time in English, or A stands for giA tc means Acceleration in English, but after my teacher clarified then I understand that I was wrong. I started studying Information Technology at eighth grade, and I studied about binary numeral system. That was very fun when we used the keyboard that has only three buttons which is one, zero, and Enter. After that, I had been under its affect for one year. When I saw any long numbers which only had one and zero, I thought that were codes, and I tried to figure out what those were. Pascal is a programing language I studied after

Dao4

binary numeral system. Because Pascal program was written in English, I had to study words in English, and I had no idea what English is at that time. Literature was harder than it used to be in lower level. I had to analyze each piece of story. It meant to take good ideas of those stories and show why that is. It was like analyzing the author feeling by the sentences in the reading. I mean how the author means by struggling or connection between sentences. It really helps my writing skill now. I also had to study Vietnamese grammar. However, I do not know how now I am very confident that I cannot make any mistakes when I write in English, but I am not sure with my Vietnamese grammar, and I do not have that confident when I write in Vietnamese. Went to high school, because I passed the second best class in my high school, so my parents let me play MMORPG, Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game. I knew many new people and made many friends by game. After then, I studied many dialects in other parts in Vietnam. In Vietnam, each part usually has its own kind of way to speak words, and they have many different dialects. I am from the North, but when I went to the mid-part and south-part of Vietnam, people talked, but I could not understand even it was Vietnamese. Fortunately, I know many friends in many places in Vietnam by game, and they helped me a lot about it. They taught me many slang words and how to pronounce them. Moreover, my friends in real life usually use words with other meanings, and I am using them a lot when I post on Facebook or chat with my friends, but I do not use them when I chat with my family. When I was in high school, I studied Chemistry. Chemistry has many words I can use for abbreviation. Chemistry also has many English names of many substances,

Dao5

international names. Especially in Organic Chemistry, there are many substances which I had to study their international names for easier remembering the substances like: But-2en is Butene with double connection in the second Carbon like CH3-CH=CH-CH3, or But-1-en is Butene with double connection in the first Carbon like CH2=CH-CH2-CH3. By the international name system, I can remember the substances and read exactly the name of the substance with its formula. Literature in high school gave me very long novels which I had to spend the whole week to read, respond, and prepare for the class. I have read many novels. I learned how authors described characters feeling. Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare is a typical novel that describes the feeling of people when they are going to die. I enjoyed it because it shows the panic of people when they are near the death, not like many other novels only show when people are happy. Moreover, I usually had in class assignment which was writing my own feeling about specific topics or specific novels. Math was really useful for me today. I did study Limit, Derivative, Antiderivative, Linear, and Geometry of space. Most of people think that it is not affected on the ability to read and write, but I do not think so. Apply Math is the good example for Math affects the ability to read and write. You only can solve a problem when you read the problem and understand it in Math. I am teaching my little cousin, and she is in eleventh grade now. For example: I have Velocity and Acceleration at a specific time, then I make a real problem with something like car or bike and ask her calculate distance at another time.

Dao6

Before twelfth grade I had choices to study university in Vietnam or study abroad, I chose study in Vietnam. However, something came up at twelfth grade, so I decided to study abroad. At that time, I studied listening, reading, and speaking by my-self before I came to the U.S. Because of my decision, my parents let me spend more time with the computer to watch movie and read comic in English not like my friends tried to study Math, Physics, and Chemistry in order to prepare for the University entrance examination. After I arrived the U.S., I joined ELTI, an English institution. I really studied a lot in reading and writing in there. I started studying what an essay is, and how to write an essay. I studied grammar there, but I studied most of them when I was in Vietnam. It was really helpful for writing skill. Not only grammar is important, but also punctuation is important, too. They taught me how to use words and punctuations. Moreover, my reading skill in English was developed when they gave me many readings, and I had to prepare for them. Last semester, there was a president election in the United State between Mr. Obama and Mr. Romney. I listened and read many things about these two candidates on public Medias, and newspapers. There were many politic and economic English words that I had not known before. I study not only politic and economic words, but also religion words in the United States. There are many religions here which dont have in my country. Last year, I joined a Baptist Church activities, and I read Bible books and have a friend to teach me about the books. Actually, I just want to train my listening and speaking skills, but I did really study a lot of words about religion. Not only joined the church, but also reading some history books in Western Culture class like: Damned

Dao7

Women by Elizabeth Reis, Myne Owne Ground by Breen and Innes, or The Bad Business of Obeah by Randy M. Browne gave me more exactly how American culture developed. As I said that I was wrong about the first time I had literacy. Four days ago, I and my friends had a party for Lunar New Year. Couple of my friends have son. He is almost two years old, but he could not speak any things. However, I noticed that they talked a lot with their son. After that I think my parents also did it with me when I was very young. Therefore, in my opinion the first time I had awareness about literacy when I was a baby.