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Pao Coronel
Professor Filbeck
English 091
24 September 2014
My Linguistic Childhood
As of today, there are currently known 6,900 distinct languages spoken throughout the
world (How Many). Its ironic how people are supposed to be relatively similar through genetics,
and yet not everyone communicates with one language. Learning a new language is a
challenging thing to do. One would have to understand the meaning of the languages characters.
Changing the way you speak also effects on how words are pronounced within the language.
Growing up, I had to face all these challenges as I studied three different dialects.
One of the three languages I had to learn was Mandarin Chinese. In my opinion, this was
probably the most difficult language that I had to learn. I had to learn how pronounce words and
read Chinese characters. The tone of the words made it even harder to pronounce them. I
remember the time when I had to go in front of the class to reenact a dialogue from my book. I
was really scared because my Chinese teacher was pretty anal about getting the pronunciation
right. What made it worse was I had to memorize the dialogue, I didnt get to read it off the book
nor get any help from the teacher. It was mandatory for us to introduce ourselves first, then say
the title of the dialogue were about to present. As I was doing my introduction, my teacher
stopped me right away because I said the title of the dialogue wrong. I was thinking to myself
Man this sucks! I already got points off and I havent even started the dialogue yet. How much
worse could this get? It got worse than I had imagined. I was so nervous that I got a mental
block and forgot how the dialogue went. I started babbling out random words that didnt even

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make any sense. Its like I was speaking gibberish. I would always look up to the ceiling trying
to remember how the dialogue went, but it never came back. I realized that I wasnt going to do
well for that oral test so I tried to make an excuse and told my teacher that I had to use the
restroom. Luckily, my teacher let me go to the restroom and asked someone else to go. I guess he
knew that I wasnt prepared for it. As I made my way to the restroom, I tried to think of how the
dialogue went. After a couple of minutes, it finally came back to me. Its like one of those light
bulb images that light up on top of your head. When I got back to class, I asked my teacher if I
could try again. I had that desperate look on my face, knowing that I wont mess it up this time.
Surprisingly, he actually let me redo the oral test. I slowly walked up front, muttering to myself
the hardest parts of the dialogue and how I cant mess up this time. I finally made it to the front
of the class and I started my introduction once again. I recited the dialogue, with confidence this
time, and managed to make it to the end. After finishing, I didnt even care about the grade that I
got, the only thing that I cared about was when my teacher had that faint smile on his face,
giving me the assurance that I did well. As I sat back down to my seat, I exhaled as if a hurricane
came out from my nose causing a relief.
English was another language I had to study when I was growing up. In the school that I
attended to in grade school, I had to learn English not because I wanted to, but because it was
mandatory to do so. I remember the time when the class was reading a book called Shiloh. It was
a novel that we only read in class. Half of the time, we would be reading the novel and discuss
the main events that had occurred in the book. My English teacher didnt want to do all the
reading by herself so she assigned popcorn reading. I disliked popcorn reading. As a matter of
fact, I disliked anything that had to do with reading. I found it pointless to read a book in a
language that more than half of the people in my country didnt speak. Whenever I would get

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called on to read, I wouldnt know where the last person left off because I never paid attention.
My teacher was getting really annoyed by me to the point where she asked me to go outside of
the classroom so she could talk to me. She asked me, Why are you not following with the class?
Do you know that half of your grade in this class is from reading? and I replied
I just dont like the class and I find reading meaningless, she gave me this
disappointing look and said
Pao, reading is something you do everywhere in your life. Its not something you can
stop doing once youre older. Knowing how to read makes you look smart and professional.
Even though its in a different language, youll be able to use it later on in life. Being trilingual,
meaning you speak three languages, can get you many opportunities with finding a job when
youre older. When she told me all this, it actually made sense for me even though I was young.
I realized that being able to read in a different language is actually pretty cool. People would be
jealous of me if I spoke three languages. After reflecting on this, I told my teacher that I was
sorry and that I would try harder in her class.
Last but not least, I had to learn my countrys own language, Tagalog. When I was
studying this language, I struggled as well, but not as much compared to the other two. The
reason that it wasnt as a hard for me because everyone that I talked to spoke the language. Even
though I struggled at first, I managed to connect myself with the language because I thought of it
as something that was a part of me. Every time I would think, I would be talking to myself in
Tagalog, not Chinese nor English. I remember when we had these cultural festivals around my
area and I would be there to participate. People would be wearing these tribal costumes and we
would have loud music playing in the background. I would dance to the song and sing along as
well if I knew the song that was playing. Everyone that I talked to spoke Tagalog, making it a lot

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easier for me to learn the language because I used it on a daily basis. Some of my friends didnt
go to the same school as I did, so in order for me to talk to them, I only spoke Tagalog. I actually
believe that culture plays a big part in learning a new language because it will always be a part of
you no matter where you go.
Learning a new language can be very challenging. As I look back to my past, I realized
how much it has benefited me to learn three different languages. Even though I didnt like
Mandarin at first, learning it was a big factor because looking at the economy right now, China is
doing well with the trading industry and they speak Mandarin. As for English, when I migrated
here to the United States, I didnt have to learn English from scratch, making it easier for me to
adapt with the people I meet. Tagalog will always be my favorite language because even though
I moved to the United States, I can still connect myself to my own culture using Tagalog as a
tool. I guess I could say that being trilingual is something I can be proud of.

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Works Cited
"How Many Languages in the World." How Many. 1 Sept. 2011. Web. 14 Sept. 2014.
<http://1howmany.com/how-many-languages-in-the-world>.
"Mandarin Chinese Pinyin Chart with Audio." Yabla Chinese. 1 Jan. 2014. Web. 14 Sept. 2014.
<https://chinese.yabla.com/chinese-pinyin-chart.php>.
"The History of Tagalog." Language Translation, Inc. 1 Jan. 2014. Web. 14 Sept. 2014.
<http://www.languagetranslation.com/translation/languages/tagalog-translation4.html>.