Goodbye Google Translate, Hello Self-Sufficiency! by Vivian

Goodbye Google Translate, Hello Self-Sufficiency! by Vivian - June 2016 Scholarship Essay

English is a language that keeps on growing. Over time, new words have been introduced, former definitions have been redefined, and, through it all, my difficulty with grammar has remained the same. Having been raised in a Vietnamese household, English was not my first language. I have had my struggles with English because the rules and tenses of the two languages are contrastingly different. It was especially difficult because, as a child, I was only able to speak Vietnamese to the elders of my household. Because of this, I did not have many opportunities to practice my second language and remained fairly behind children whose families spoke only English. Between fifth and sixth grade I finally realized that my journey towards English mastery would be a difficult one. I wanted to, at least, become proficient enough in order to write grammatically correct essays as well as form complex sentences. I recognized that, in order to do this, I needed to commit an extraordinary amount of time to reading grammar books. At the same time, I also constantly needed to develop my English vocabulary. I did this by compiling and studying many lists of vocabulary words that helped to improve my vocabulary and writing.

There were many times when I felt like giving up because the support from my family and teachers was limited. My family did not speak very much English and my teachers, although very supportive, could not spend a lot of individual time with me due to the size of the class.

It was frustrating at times because I kept comparing myself to others. What I did not realize was: life was not about comparing myself with others. They certainly were not comparing themselves to me so why was I always bringing myself up to the standards of others? It did not matter what everyone else knew or did. Everything I did to improve my understanding of the language up to this point, such as staying afterschool to get help, was not for the sake of others. It was for myself. I did what I had to do to improve myself as an individual. I worked hard in school because I wanted to make my family proud. I wanted to make myself proud. The motivation to excel was always inside of me; I just approached it in the wrong way. Instead of comparing myself to others, I should have just focused on bettering myself as a person. Coming to this realization made me proud because I no longer viewed every action I made as a result of wanting to be better than others, but rather, as a result of personal growth.

After this realization, I reorganized my study habits to where I would self teach myself for multiple hours a day and try practice problems with my grammar book. If I had a clarifying question, I would take it to my teacher after school and analyze where I went wrong. In other words, I would explain my thought processes and hope that my teacher would be able to clearly explain the fault in my reasoning. I no longer looked to others to guide me every step of the way. Instead, I refined my study habits so that I focused on independent study. With a new attitude and some help, I soon had a better understanding of how to write complex sentences from reading many diverse books. Even today, there are still parts of grammar that I struggle to perfect. The use of past and present tenses is still an issue because, in the Vietnamese language, we do not distinguish between the two. Transitions also continue to be a challenge for me. I have learned that the road towards proficiency is long and ever changing. What I have learned throughout this academic journey is that if I continue to try, I will eventually accomplish my goals and, in the process, face new challenges that will help me grow as a student and as a person.