Coming To America Narrative Essay

Coming to America was terrifying for me. It was a new place to learn new things. The most important thing I was concerned about was reading and writing in english. I knew if I failed to learn how to read and write in english I would not make it in america. It was very crucial for me to learn so when I was in Elementary school in Hampton, there was a school that had this program called ESL. It stands for English Second Language. I was so nervous, I thought other students would tease me on how I had a heavy accent and can only write in arabic. When I entered the class, the students were all different kind of race. Mexican, Russian, and German etc, I did not know half these races existed until I entered the class. I felt more calm there when I saw other muslims in my class. I immediately advanced in math but reading and writing english was a slower process. We first learned the alphabet and I thought I could never remember twenty-six letters. Especially since arabic and english alphabets were so completely different it was very challenging for me. I start getting one on one help and it made learning reading and writing easier. The books that help me read was Dr.Seuss’s books and the first thing we learned to write was our first and last name. I was feeling more confident and enjoy learning english. I start reading and writing outside of school. Everything I saw I read it out loud and I start writing a journal. English got so much easier and my heavy accent start fading away slowly. Soon I was able to read a grade or two above my average and I was even able to write in cursive. My mom and dad was very proud of me because they saw how hard I worked to learn a new language. When I was in fourth grade I had the highest grades in ESL. My teacher even asked me to communicate and help other students who were …show more content…
After recess one day I was walking to my class and she said that ESL is for retard kids. I told her to shut up and I saw her grade in English and she had a D. I told her English is her first language and she is failing. My hair was long and braided and she was so angry she yanked my hair so hard that I fell back on the ground. She start laughing at me with other group of girls. I stood up and pushed her down. We start fighting until the teachers pulled us apart. We was send to the principal office to tell him what happen and call our parents. When we sat down across the principal’s desk, the girl start crying. She kept saying it was my fault and I kept teasing her because she is failing English. The principal heard her side of the story and then wanted to hear mines. I told him everything on how she kept treating me like I was stupid because I was in ESL. He explained how ESL helps students learn English and how they become bright students. We should not tease classmates who have trouble learning subjects but help them. He suspended us a week from school. When I came back I was put in regular English class and was doing just fine. Even though English is my second language I can read and write as good as a person whose first Language is