sponsors of literacy draft

8/8/2019 Sponsors of Literacy Draft

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Sara Hambright

Professor Jan Rieman

English 1103

September 13, 2010

My Struggle for Literacy

"Stratification of opportunity continues to organize access and reward in literacy

learning," was a key point in Deborah Brandt's Sponsors of Literacy. While intimidating to read

at first, it is actually a simple concept. Brandt is merely trying to convey that access/stratification

to literacy determines ones outcome in that literacy. This is a exceptionally true theory in respect

to my own personal experience in learning Chinese. Although I may have a passion for learning

Chinese, there was always the struggle in having access to the language and teachers that

hindered my education along the way. However, despite not living in a Chinese dominant

culture, with the help of my father and other encouraging adults I was able to increase my

Mandarin literacy.

Mandarin at first was a chore for me, a task assigned by my overbearing father. Being a

Colonel in the military, with no boys to carry out his legacy, he looked to his first born to follow

his footsteps. Unfortunately for me, that first born was me. At a young age my dad taught me to

never settle for less than the best and even then that was never enough. I was always the top of

my class, loved by my teachers, and never satisfied when it came to my education. My father

decided I would go into the Military under Military Intelligence and hopefully obtain a job in

NSA, since entering combat was out of the question due to my sex. To ensure that I would

succeed he made me choose between Farsi or Mandarin in seventh grade. Not knowing what


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Farsi was at the time, I chose Mandarin unaware of the literacy struggle I was about to

encounter.

I made the decision to learn Chinese in seventh grade, however it was not until eighth

grade that my father and I were actually able to locate a teacher. Despite being in a overall

wealthy area, Chinese teachers were still difficult to locate. Finally in the fall of 2005, my father

found a program called "Carmel Chinese Academy". It was part of a nearby Christian Church

that had a heavy Chinese population. They met every Sunday after church for two hours and

offered elementary Chinese and English. Their purpose was to teach Chinese to the second

generation of children, while teaching English to the adults. Excited to begin this new language I

eagerly agreed to enter the program.

My teacher was Wang Lao Shi, who could speak little English, but had the heart of good

intentions. She was thrilled that I wanted to learn Chinese, as I was one of the few white people

there, and personally took me under her wing. Needless to say, Chinese is not an easy language

to learn, especially when your teacher has a heavy Beijing accent.

Also, since the Academy was

based in a Church, they tended to tie in Church values. I was learning how to say words like

"god" and "church", before basic greetings. While some of the teachers were attempting to

confront me on my religious beliefs, Wang Lao Shi was always there to teach me unbiased

Chinese. No matter how frustrated I would get, Wang Lao Shi would always be there to remind

me that learning Chinese should be fun, not a chore.

My father was working at opening my access to Chinese more, knowing that once a week

would not be enough. He spoke to the Principal of my future High School and convinced the

board that offering a Chinese language class would profoundly benefit the school's prestige and

students global awareness. I was thrilled when Wang Lao Shi agreed to be the first Chinese


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teacher at my high school. So spring of 2007, I enrolled in the first ever Chinese Language class

offered at Weddington High school and so began my acquiring of High School credits for

Chinese.

Despite my previous studies in the fall of 2005 and spring of 2006 at Carmel Chinese

Academy, since I had not studied Chinese in a year, I felt I had completely lost all previous

knowledge entering my High School Chinese class in 2007.

I cannot explain how frustrating it was to realize I had forgotten basic phrases and

characters. This would pose as an ongoing problem as my school would only offer one semester

of Chinese class every year, leaving me another semester and summer to forget what I had

learned. Chinese is not a language you can study a bit here and there to become fluent, instead it

is something that takes daily practice and learning to master. Wang Lao Shi would always tease

me when I was impatient to learn more, knowing I had not mastered the previous lessons, saying

" ". This is a Chinese idiom that basically means "haste makes waste", referring that

learning many things quickly doesn't mean my fluency would come any faster. I wished for

nothing more than constant emersion in the Chinese language so that I might finally be able to

fully grasp Mandarin, instead of all the breaks that set me back.

Another problem I faced arose after my freshman year, my high school was deemed over

populated and forced to divided into two new school districts. I was forced to go to a new high

school and leave Wang Lao Shi. My dad worked hard to ensure that this new high school would

offer Chinese as well. In the Spring of my sophomore year I was introduced to my new Chinese

teacher, who I resented tremendously. Unlike Wang Lao Shi, she was new to America and

unaccustomed to the American Classroom. She could barely speak English, which posed as a

major problem. Students took advantage of her so a majority of the class was spent with


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discipline instead of instruction. I had little respect for the teacher who could not understand my

questions or offer me any challenging work since she was busy with misbehaving students. At

the time I considered He Lao Shi was very inadequate and frequently lamented to the Language

department, even once referring to her as "illiterate". I would later apologize to He Lao Shi after

becoming more culturally aware. It was because of her persistence, despite an unsuitable

learning environment, that I was able to study Chinese.

During my junior year, I discovered a Summer Institute of Chinese at a local university

called Queens. The possibility of finally being able to study Chinese in the summer had me

ecstatic, despite the price tag attached. Furthermore, it was not just a language course. It would

be an all day emersion into the Chinese culture and language from 9am until 5pm. My dad

encouraged the idea but made me pay for the course myself to ensure I would be motivated to

take advantage of this opportunity. This is how I came about finding my first job to afford the

tuition cost and books.

After paying and expecting a great experience at this summer institute, you can imagine

my original dismay upon discovering that He Lao Shi was not only a teacher in this program, but

assigned to my group. I entered class expecting to find the same inadequate teacher, but

discovered that with respectful student He Lao Shi was beyond adequate, she was phenomenal.

She assisted me every step of the way, and only spoke Chinese so that I was forced to better my

literacy. I was at Queens University from 9am until 5pm speaking Mandarin, then working at the

movies from 6pm until midnight to maintain my new job. I cannot tell you how many times I

said "you're welcome" in Chinese to customers on accident during those two weeks. It was a

fantastic experience and I am beyond grateful that I had access to it.


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After our bonding experience at the Summer Institute of Queens, He Lao Shi and I

continued our relationship through senior year. She wrote recommendation for scholarships and

references for college.

While I did end up winning an Army ROTC Scholarship from UNCC,

which would have expanded my literacy, He Lao Shi introduced me to a business take on China.

I became fascinated with studying abroad and entering International Business so I could live in

China.

Despite the fact that I ended up changing my career goal, Chinese still remained relevant

and will assist me in my goals. The ability to speak Mandarin has opened a variety of doors and

will only to continue to do so. Learning Chinese was and still is a struggle, but it is because of

access to sponsors like my father, great teachers, and educational programs that I am able to

increase my Chinese literacy.

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