Cody Chen

9/5/2021

FIQWS 10103 / Section 55304

Professor Jorge Velez

One meaningful and memorable moment of my language experiences was during my childhood when I was around 10 years old. At that time I mostly knew English so I always helped translate from English to Chinese for my grandpa and grandma because they didn’t know English and were only able to speak Chinese. One of the easiest memories I can recall is ordering food at McDonalds. I had to order for myself saying I wanted a hamburger and then telling my grandpa what I said to the cashier and then he just paid for it and watched me eat it. I didn’t find it weird at all but it really opened my eyes because I was like why did I have to do this, why couldn’t you guys do this. Then I realized growing up bilingual knowing Chinese and English that it was because they weren’t from here and they didn’t know any English at all. It really showed the differences between people when I was young because I had to translate word for word because I thought they would be able to understand some of it but they didn’t understand at all. Fast forward a few years I realized even more that most people also had very similar experiences because in the early 2000s there were very many immigrants that came here that didn’t know English and mostly only knew their foreign languages. But thankfully, with school and education the children of every immigrant are offered the opportunity to be able to study and learn English. Even though we still have education, young kids translating to their parents is a daily occurrence that still happens around our country. But it really can’t be helped because there’s not much of a way to help adults learn English.