The Confessions of a Late Bloomer—Episode 2: About Reading Books (and Two Languages)

 

As I have mentioned previously, I am a daughter of Japanese immigrants. This means that I speak Japanese at home and English outside of home (except at the Japanese community school where Japanese speaking is a must)—a norm for my family and me.

Because I was learning two languages at once, I struggled with reading and writing at school. Communicating was not too bad, as long as I blend in with my schoolmates by learning the conversational English used on the school grounds. At home, same thing, as long as my parents understood what I was saying. With my siblings (my brother and sister), we communicated in a mixture of Japanese and English.

If you are wondering what kind of bi-language mixture my siblings and I used, here is an example:

My brother: “I borrowed some manga (Japanese comics) from nihongo-gakkou (Japanese school).”

Me: “Nani karita (what did you borrow)?”

My brother: “Doraemon.”

Me: “We need to keep that from Mammi (we called our mom “mammi,” our version of “mommy” or “mom”). You know she will okoru (get mad) when she finds them.”

My brother: “I’ll hide it at the bottom of my kabann (school bag).”

 

You get the idea.

 

Because my siblings and I tried to survive life by using English at school and Japanese at home, we struggled with reading and writing both languages. I chose picture books as a choice of literature (illustrated fairy tales in English, manga books in Japanese) because I felt I got more from the pictures and illustrations than black letters on a white page. That being said, I did not stop there.

Our school principal encouraged reading by setting 30 minutes nearly every morning for all students to read. The students have freedom in their choice of literature (as long as the content is appropriate for their age group—which includes comic books).

One day, one of my classmates in grade four, who was an avid reader, made a recommendation to me. It was “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.” Sadly, I was one of those who chose a book by its cover (and its thickness and size of print), so I passed on the book. However, I realized I needed to read something with more substance than just picture books, and that was when I came across a slim volume of short mysteries called “Encyclopedia Brown, Boy Detective” written by Donald J. Sobol in my classroom library. I found myself engrossed in the book and soon I wanted more.

Within my grade four learning, I borrowed more “Encyclopedia Brown” series then moved on to other chapter books (“No Flying in the House” by Betty Brock, a collection of fairy tales by Brothers Grimm, “Socks” by Beverly Cleary, and more). After reading those books, I finally picked up “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” and read the entire book.

Reading was a challenge for me, but once I discovered that not only it was possible to accomplish, but I also found the joy in reading. I hope that my readers (or future readers) will be encouraged after reading this.

The Confessions of a Late Bloomer—Episode 1: A Story on Homework

    As a daughter of Japanese immigrants, English was a challenge in school. It was especially more so when I told them, “I have homework.” Their usual response was: “We don’t know English, so don’t ask us.”

    Because of this, I would take home my assignment and bring it back to school untouched. (Besides, the whole point of homework is taking the work home, right?) This went on from grade one all the way to grade four.

    It was in grade four. My teacher, seeing that I brought home blank pages, finally cornered me, and had me stay in class after school. I remember crying my eyes out in the office, telling my mother over the phone that I was told by my teacher to stay after school because I did not do my homework. Imagine my shock when my mother said, “Ok. Just come straight home when you’re done.”

    Interestingly, I was not angry at my teacher for keeping me after school. I knew I deserved the punishment; however, the problem remained: I did not know how to do homework. The easiest answer is “just do it!” but to me it was more than that. This was a report that was assigned to me. I was told to do research by looking up information in books and write a report based on a subject I chose, but I did not understand how to write a report. Kids in my class knew how to put their thoughts into writing on paper and would write something that showed their understanding of their researched topic. I, however, struggled to put my thoughts on paper, let alone write up a report.

    In the end, my teacher did not directly help me, but had me sit in class to finish my report while she did her teaching preparations for the next lessons. Much to my surprise, I wrote up the report and handed it in. Later in the week, I got it back with a positive mark that was other than a “D” or a big fat zero.

    After that incident, I did my homework promptly and turned it in on time.

    I hope that one day I could meet my grade-four teacher and say, “Thank you for having me stay after school and finish my assignment.”