Description of Childhood and Experience
Language has always played a vital role in shaping my communication skills throughout my life. I was brought up in a Jamaican family that was culturally conservative. Despite being born and raised in the United States, my family was slow to embrace the American culture and language. In my opinion, my family only stayed in the US for the economic opportunities and not the culture. Essentially, my family left Jamaica to ensure we lived in an environment where we could get quality education and enhance our security away from the high crime rate in Jamaica. I was exposed to the Jamaican language orientation at an early age. My parents greatly influenced my language skills since I spent most of my time under their care. One of the most nostalgic moments was when my father would offer pronunciation lessons, which he delivered using a heavy Jamaican accent. As my first teacher, he instilled the Jamaican accent, which influenced my communication. I also had relatives from Jamaica whom we often met during holidays, and they further influenced my language skills. My culturally conservative family always used patois to communicate and give instructions in the house and during occasions. As a result, I was afraid that I would not match the language standards in the US.
Jamaican patois is fundamentally English but has a distinct pronunciation. In addition, the language is heavily influenced by United Kingdom standards since Jamaica was colonized by the UK. Communicating in patois enabled me to understand my cultural background and learn the essentials of communication. Acknowledging my culture influenced my perception of US English, and I did not like the idea of learning the dominant English used in the country. Also, speaking patois was a source of entertainment as it involved using fun words. I cannot forget how my parents used to tell stories about their childhood using patois, which made it easier for me to understand basic English concepts. As I grew older, it was essential for me to join school. However, the schools in the Bronx adopted the US culture and language standards. For this reason, I always wondered whether I would fit in with the native students. Initially, I was skeptical about joining the school since I would not interact with students from my cultural background. In addition, I was afraid of cultural segregation, which negatively impacted my performance—I got low grades due to a lack of support from educators and other students in school.
In my home, my parents always told stories that were marred with violence in Jamaica and the racial injustices that were prevalent in the US. These stories instilled a sense of fear that made me abhor living and studying in the Bronx. In pre-school, I was a reclusive student since my language and pronunciation were different from those of my peers. Fortunately, I joined a private school where the learners did not understand the aspect of cultural and language differences. In addition, the teachers in pre-school were cultured and did not segregate me due to my different language and culture. Unlike in the previous school where I had no support because of my cultural differences, the private school was welcoming and treated me equally, just like other students in the school. From this experience, I learned the need to accept and support all students despite their cultural backgrounds and differences. The experience also played a significant role in my studies because the support I received helped improve my grades. Elementary school was also an amazing experience as I did not suffer cultural prejudice. The elementary stage presented an opportunity for me to sharpen my pronunciation skills and adjust to the language standards. Despite my efforts in school, I was always confused when communicating with my peers in class. While in school, I could manage to use the appropriate words. However, I changed to my native patois as soon as I reached home since it was the ideal language of communication with my family. For example, while at home, I would only use my native language. This had a negative influence on translanguaging because I did not have more opportunities to understand other languages further; still, this helped me get used to my native language and not lose the meaning of it.
As I joined public institutions for middle and high school education, my experience with language changed. At these levels, I met students who understood cultural differences, which made my experience unpleasant. My accent was evident at this point, and most students easily knew that I had a Jamaican background. The accent made me stand out and presented an opportunity for some students to treat me unfairly. As a multilingual student, I would use patois vocabulary at times. For instance, I was inclined to use the word “wagwan” instead of “How are you doing.” As a result, most students from other cultural backgrounds would make fun of my language or degrade my culture.
Another memory that stood out was the scolding I received from teachers due to mispronunciation. My heavy accent often interfered with my pronunciation skills, which caused the teachers to be unkind. Some teachers felt that I was a slow learner and did not deserve to be in their classes, but in lower grades and not in the 4th grade. As I got older, I understood the frustration that comes with teaching multilingual students. I take these experiences into account in my quest to become an educator in a public school. These experiences will be integral in ensuring I treat my students equally regardless of their cultural backgrounds. My teaching identity will be influenced by these experiences in that I will ensure that all students are fully supported despite their cultural backgrounds and identities. Further, I will use my experiences to enhance cultural and language diversity in my classroom. I intend to create a day where we can learn attributes about foreign languages. During these days, I will ask multilingual learners to share some aspects of their languages to instill a sense of respect and acknowledgment for foreign languages.
ORDER A PLAGIARISM-FREE PAPER HERE
We’ll write everything from scratch
Question 
So, I uploaded some examples and instructions of what my professor wants done to the order. You’re going to write a 2-3 page essay about my description of childhood Setting and Experience the exact details about the assignment are uploaded to the order and I also uploaded some essays that my professor provided as examples of how it should be written. I uploaded some things about myself below that you will need to know when writing this paper please review all attachments to the order before writing this paper.
Description of Childhood and Experience
Growing up in a Jamaican family played a huge role in my language in my household my parents and I would speak patois which is also called patwah which is still English but in America, they would call it broken English. Around my family growing up and few other people outside of my family I used to only speak patios but once I started going to school and growing up in the Bronx I was exposed to many different languages which made me expand the way I speak as I kept getting older. Now I can switch my accent on and off and so can my family since we have been living in Bronx NY for years. A lot of the things we would say in Patois would be different in the Bronx. For example, “ what’s going on “ in English would be “Wagwan “ in patois. “Soccer” in the Bronx is called “football “ in Jamaica. “eat” in English would be “nyam” in patois. “smart” in English would be “bright” in patois. So, as you can see growing up in the Bronx has really played a huge role in my language. Going to school in the Bronx really expanded my language my pre-school was a private school I had some really great teachers who would break down many different ways to do or say things I learned how to read and write and how to pronounce things outside of patois from my pre-school. But for some things, I used to say in patois my teachers would tell me I was not pronouncing the English word correctly but I actually was just not in the English word they knew I would say it in patois which they couldn’t understand. then I got to my elementary school which was a public school that expanded my learning and language more and I stayed in the same elementary school from kindergarten to the 5th grade. Then I went on to middle school and then I went on to high school which were all public schools in the Bronx that also played a huge role in my language. So, growing up in the Bronx has really shaped my language in many ways and I know becoming an educator in a public school I’m going to be great.